[yossarian]

Since you brought up podcast 5 and science, I figure I'll repost the email I sent to Steve back in the day when I first heard that podcast. (Also Podcast 8)

I sent this email to Steve on Thursday April 13, 2006. Today it is Thursday April 12, 2007.

Exactly one year later, within about 16 hours.

This is the first time i've revisited this email since April 2006, just because of your post.

Creepy!

Anyway here it is...

Hey Steve,

I'm a physics major, and i've spent a good potion of my life
studying the true nature of reality, existential questions and the scientific method.

I have recently been reading and listening to your stuff that deals with mental models, consiousness, and the true nature of reality. Multiple times you have mentioned things along the lines of "if we don't know either way, and can't prove things either way, we should choose the empowering belief. The belief that gives us the best results."

I certainly agree with that, and that's because my training and education as a physicist has taught me precisely that that model which delivers the best results not only is advantageous, but literally and truly IS true, it IS the true nature of reality and it IS very much real.

For example if you take an electron. Current theory posits that an electron is a type of particle of ordinary matter that has a few specific wave characteristics. But no one has ever seen an electron, and in fact there is absolutely nothing that says that an alternative to this theory cannot exist. Maybe instead of being a particle it's a pink unicorn and we just haven't figured out the exact physics of pink unicorns yet so we can't distinguish pink unicorns from particles of matter. This certainly can be true and the nature of science is that these theories constantly change.

However, it's very true to say that this electron not just seems to be real, and it's not just a working model, but that it IS truly real, as most people have come to agree. People regard electrons as being real things.

Fundamentally, EVERY scientific belief about the universe is based on results of mental models. If the results work, if the results provide _utility_, we declare the mental model to be real. The counterintuitive part about this is that mental models constantly change, which means our reality literally and truly is constantly changing! Science advances all the time and people figure out new more accurate models, and these are taken to be correct, and those scientists who most deeply understand their craft immediately take these new advances to be truly real. Not "just" a model or "just" a theory, but 100% real.

This scientific method applies equally as well to electrons as it does to Buddhism. If a conciousness decides to take the Buddhism model and determines that that model is providing him the most utility, by the principles of this thing called "science" he must take that model to be the true nature of reality! He is acting scientifically to declare that Buddhism is real!

So when it comes to rationality vs. spiritualism, the "rational" models that scientifically oriented students of the universe take is actually completely congruent with spritual beliefs, and in the sense that you described it in Podcast 8, your mental model IS very much testable by the scientific method! In fact it takes nothing more than just observing that some arbitrary belief system is the most useful for you to determine that it is real! By declaring that the universe has one consiousness, you aren't saying something that is untestable at all. It's very easy to test it, all you have to do is determine that that model is the most useful of any model you've seen.

Another interesting thing about this is that reality can, and truly is, different for different people. For example maybe you have a different definition of useful, maybe it's more useful to your personal life to believe that electrons don't exist. If this is honestly more useful to you (ie. you aren't being intellectually dishonest) then it can be and IS truly true that electrons don't exist. The greatest physicists study the deepest nature of reality, and as part of this huge challenge they've had to confront these ideas right up close. There are some physical theories where you cannot have a deep understanding without confronting these issues of the universe. Once a physicist is confronted with this challenge, to resolve it he eventually must change his own mental model to understand that reality IS the mental model. Reality, in the most accurate sense, is nothing more than what you believe it to be.

There are a number of contradictory theories in fundamental physics that are simultaneously real. This seems like a contradiction until you realise that mental models of reality ARE reality.

Question: How can two contradictory models both be true?
Answer: They both provide equally useful results!

Many scientists struggle with this idea, and many spend their entire lives not believing it but using the results anyway. However the greatest scientists have shown, several times over, how this truly is true, and it fits exactly what you yourself practice. If you're interested in similar ideas, and specifically the greatest ideas on science and mental models in general up to now, I would recommend the first 3 chapters of Richard Feynman's "The Feynman Lecture's on Physics, Vol. 1"

They are absolutely fascinating. In fact with your background in math you might love the whole series, which is the best and deepest treatment of the fundamentals of physics to date. For a deep understanding all you need is basic college math which you obviously have. Since your ideas brush so closely to this stuff I think you would highly enjoy the first three chapters especially.

- Yossarian

Steve replied with some interesting stuff and there were a few more emails but i'll leave them out for now.