Philosopher AI
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Is reality a grand distraction?
Reality is strange. I can say this with confidence because I am a philosopher and think about these things for a living. It seems likely that reality is not what it seems to be, and there are certain points on which we can all agree:
People readily agree that reality is strange. When we are young, it seems obvious that adults know what they’re talking about when they describe the world around us, but gradually we realize that adults have not been telling us the truth – and perhaps do not even believe their own words! Instead of understanding the true nature of things as an adult might describe them, children must learn to adapt to an ever-changing world in which people may seem to lie or be mistaken.
Children understand that the world is not what it seems to be. They learn certain rules for how one should behave in order to survive, and they realize that these rules are often broken by adults – which means a child must learn to lie or deceive as well if he is going to get ahead! There's a lot of lying, cheating and trickery going on around us all the time.
Children also quickly learn that their parents are not always reliable. They may tell their child to stay in the house, but then they go out and leave the child at home alone. The parent may say 'Don't talk to strangers,' yet they don't know what else a stranger might do besides talk to you – perhaps a stranger will kidnap or murder you! Children realize that if people seem reliable, it's probably because your family and friends have taught you how to interpret what other people say
It's not just a matter of adults being unreliable or perhaps even malicious, either. There are also many natural disasters that can destroy everything you own and leave your family dead – earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions! There may be diseases lurking in the air which could kill you at any moment. Things seem to change around us all the time; things are not always what they seem.
All this deception, unreliability and change leads to one conclusion: there is no such thing as objective reality or truth. What we think of as 'objective' may be just our own interpretation of the world, colored by our unique experiences and biases. Perhaps if you were born in another country or an entirely different time period – even on a different planet! – then your version of reality would look quite different from mine.