Who are we, where did we come from and where are we going? What is "I"? Everyone has asked himself these questions at least once in his life. You can consider our world as a reality, designating yourself as an "internal observer", and study the operation of laws that are known and understandable to us. Although, of course, humanity is still very far from revealing all the secrets of the universe.
Let's say that God created us, it doesn't matter what we mean by this concept now: aliens or a mystical entity. But it is interesting, if you introduce an outside observer, for example, God, will he see us in the same way as we see ourselves? Common sense dictates yes. And he will not go anywhere from this.
Why? But because for him our real world is not chaos at all, he must distinguish all of its states and understand the laws by which these states change. This means that God should be at least a little, but similar to us. After all, he himself and his "Divine" world are part of a more complex system, which includes our reality. For him, our world is just a subsystem, and at the same time, it is quite likely that it is extremely unstable.
A person has always felt the gaze of this invisible "eye" on him. Maybe that's why people for millennia depicted their deities in human form. Or at least in the form of creatures in which there is at least something human - goat-like or multi-armed entities, centaurs, giants, and then just in the form of an ordinary person without any physical flaws.
It is interesting that the gods who have “survived” to our time necessarily have a physical body. For example, Buddha's nirmanakaya or the body of Christ. This view of the world suits us, because it is logical, and therefore understandable. Someone created someone. Then the one who was created created another, and so on along the chain, until we reached the level of humanity - God. But the question remains open: which of the two (or many) realities really exists - ours or the creator?
Bottomless barrel
So is our world real or not? And what is reality in general? Why do we call the world around us "matrix"? Let's drop the mathematical definition of a matrix, it is not needed here. In a simplified everyday sense, a matrix is a system of templates, stamps, samples, codes. Our consciousness is a matrix. Rather, a set of images that appear in our brain when consciousness is turned on.
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How does it work? With the help of the senses, a person collects information from external objects. Further, there is an automatic distinction of codes inherent in objects. A person collects a collection of codes from birth to death. Memory is responsible for the safety of this collection. This is followed by the comprehension of the object and the reaction to what is happening. This is the very reality in which we live. It is important for a person to be in his usual coordinate system, in this case it is easy for him to make adequate decisions.
And now let us assume that all of the above is just "bullshit". This is where the fun begins. The fact is that our physical world is similar to a multitude of an infinite number of self-similar layers, and each fateful scientific discovery takes us to a new level of knowledge. Well, for example, at first man discovered that matter consists of molecules, and molecules of atoms.
Atoms consist of a nucleus and electrons … and so on, we will not delve into the depths of elementary particle physics. As a result, scientists came to the conclusion about the wave nature of matter. But how the photons of the field turn into matter, it remained only to speculate. Finally, we got to the Higgs boson. Almost caught him by the tail. And what, did you stop there? It wasn't like that.
The standard model for building the universe is already bursting at the seams. And there is a great suspicion that this is so - ad infinitum. But then our world is most likely a mathematical abstraction, and we are nothing more than variables in it. This assumption is confirmed by the presence of strict laws in nature, for example, the four fundamental forces. And where, then, is the material carrier of our virtuality, that is, the real reality? And how real is this medium itself?
Know yourself
The Church claims that we live in the real world, and after death our soul will go to another world, that is, immaterial, non-physical. I wonder how this assertion, which has not yet been proven by anyone, relates to the latest scientific discoveries about the materiality of the soul? Divine demiurges of different religions created the world, being somewhere out there, in transcendental distances, but nevertheless they created man in their own "image and likeness".
Does this mean that the “other” world is not very different from our material world? Does it mean that there we must eat, drink, love and satisfy our dependence on material goods? In the immaterial heavenly kingdom of the righteous, endless bliss awaits, nevertheless based on physical sensations. How is this possible? So, the point is in the codes.
It turns out that any religion is based on codes that are instilled in a person, eventually forming his personality, without which his psyche will simply collapse. It is no coincidence that many deities of antiquity were born by virgins in December and have similar biographies - this is a code. Agree, it is not very comfortable to realize that you are living according to someone invented template. Even Thomas Anderson (Neo) in the movie "The Matrix", when asked by Morpheus about whether he believes in fate, said no, because it is unpleasant to think that you are manipulated.
So where is the exit? Philosophers have long tried to find it. Even Socrates realized that something was wrong in the world. But it could not even occur to him, for example, that in fact he was lying motionless in saline, wrapped in wires connected to a supercomputer. He had no choice, and the only solution he saw was to crack the matrix codes from the inside. In despair, he urged his fellow citizens to know themselves. It is no coincidence that in the apartment of the Pythia from The Matrix the poster read: “Know thyself”.
The world is an illusion
Buddhists went even further: they figured out how to do it. First, they explained that all images and inferences are illusions and each of us sees the world in his own way. There is a famous parable about how three blind people were allowed to touch an elephant and asked what it looked like. Each of them touched only one part of the animal's body, so their descriptions were very different from the original and from each other.
Buddhists have proposed a solution to get rid of illusions in order to stop suffering. What is the essence of the method of working with your own consciousness? It's simple. Buddhism suggests simply giving up thinking. To discard it as an unnecessary burden, performing only intuitive actions. But it’s not so easy to do it. Therefore, there are many different methods of how to achieve pure consciousness. The basis of all techniques is the practice of meditation. In India it is called "dhyana", in China - "chan", in Korea - "sleep", in Japan - "Zen". The thought process is very difficult to stop, but it can be slowed down. The result is achieved through many years of practice.
But in order to achieve a result - in Sanskrit it is called "annutara samyak sambodhi" - you need to sever all ties with the outside world, become a monk and devote yourself completely to meditation. Essentially, this is the same dream in saline. Only in the first case, you still live a full life, albeit a fictional one, with its successes, failures, disappointments and pleasures. And in the second, you deliberately deprive yourself of the joys of life. Yes, there is no suffering, but there is no happiness either. Then why live at all?
Why do you need "Bugatti"?
The question of what our world is - reality, mathematical abstraction or matrix - remains open. But one thing is indisputable: there are plenty of all kinds of matrices in our life. Examples around a dime a dozen. The already mentioned religion, the race for status things, a lifestyle based on luxury, etc. Tell me, what's the difference, what brand of car you drive and what brand of jeans are you wearing? But there are people for whom this is important. They definitely need to stand out from the general background.
If the house - then on Rublevka, if the car - then "Bugatti", if the wife - then a supermodel. All of them are victims of the matrix and pay dearly for living according to stereotypes. After all, in this race it is impossible to stop, because there will always be someone who has a better house, car or wife.
Why are there separate people - whole nations live in a matrix. Those in power simply broadcast sets of codes, which, when repeated many times, become firmly stuck in people's minds. On September 11, 2001, a tragedy occurred in the United States that claimed the lives of thousands of people. The official version is a terrorist attack by Islamists. But what about the strange absurdities and obvious inconsistencies?
The fact that the seventh building of the World Trade Center collapsed, into which no plane crashed. The fact that the North and South towers collapsed completely like houses of cards, although they could withstand a blow much more powerful than an airplane hit. The fact that there are no traces of the plane that allegedly fell on the Pentagon, and so on. The bankers have come up with an even more destructive matrix - the Federal Reserve System. Not only does the dollar not have gold backing, but the Fed also runs the printing press, shrinking or increasing the money supply around the world as it sees fit.
This has become the cause of all world crises, major bankruptcies and destructive wars of the last century. Governments demand money, the press prints it, and its owners rub their hands.
But you can and should fight with matrices. There are also many examples: the anti-globalization movement, organizations fighting for environmental protection, animal protection, etc. Each of us must decide for himself: to be an obedient slave of the matrix or the master of our own life.
Sergey SUKHANOV