Have you Ever Wondered # 3 – If Our Worlds are Different

Hey guys! So if you haven’t heard I officially have a ustream channel where I look forward to live streaming all future episodes. You can check it out at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/philosophy-is-phun. I am going to try and do a podcast sometime soon to test it out but I will send a Facebook message out from the philosophy group to tell you guys and probably make an event for it as well. If you are interested stop on over and I may put you on the show!

Anyways, back to the real reason for this post. I wanted to discuss something that BLEW MY FREAKING MIND when I really started to think about it! It is kind of hard to explain so this might be a little short but I still feel like it is something really interesting to think about. I was wondering if all of our worlds are different. I know we all live in the same world physically but the way that we perceive it could be completely different. I first started thinking about this topic when in physics class we were learning about colors and how they appear to everyone. I was thinking about how scientists know that we have cones in our eyes that allow us to perceive colors. This made me think even though that I see a color as blue and have been told in the past that that color looks like the blue, I was wondering if others saw it the same way I do.

This just kind of perspective uniqueness spiraled into basically all description words in general. Description words I have noticed are based upon perspectives. One basic example is when you call someone tall or short. The definition of tall is in a sense being great in vertical dimension. We all know what the vertical dimension is. It is the y axis on a graph. But the adjective great is relative compared to the people judging someone as tall or not. If you are greater in the vertical dimension than someone else then you will see someone as being short. Basketball players would call someone who’s 6 feet as being short but compared to normal people they are tall. Mason Bedard is a giant to me but he is relatively about the same height as Steve Nash. This layman example can basically apply to all situations.

When I look at the color blue what actually appears and the word I associate it with have become a learned habit ever since I was a little kid. I have always been told I have blue eyes so when I see similar colors I perceive them as being blue. What you see as being blue can be something completely different from what I consider being blue but because we both associated those colors with the word blue that is how we both see them and we have a common understanding that could come from complete ignorance of actually seeing the world in someone else’s eyes. WHOA!

You all have probably heard the expression walking in someone else’s shoes. It can be somewhat easy to actually put yourself in the same situations that someone else is going through but it is completely impossible to view the world through someone else’s eyes and see things the exact same way they do. I’m sure you guys have seen a TV show or something where the camera makes you look through the eyes of a bug or a dog and it completely changes the way someone can live or the way their perspectives are formulated based upon a very different appearance of their environment. We also know that everyone is unique in a variety of ways. Whether it is in our appearance, our personality, or something else, we all are different and we all have different perspectives and maybe not just figurative perspective but also literal perspective like what we see, hear, etc. I feel like this could apply to almost any way we interact with our environment which comes primarily from our senses. I feel like we have blatant examples right in front of us that can help explain these possible things that make all of our worlds different. I found this particular yahoo answer (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080305205947AAFtlOv) of how everybody’s taste buds are different and that changes our perspective of what we eat from person to person. While one person might like fruits and vegetables, their taste buds could make their own perspectives like such foods where another’s (such as mine) makes my brain despise such food. This doesn’t just have to apply to your tongue either. Take the eyes. Everybody’s eyes are shaped differently and sight is a major way we perceive the world. Because of all the variations, some people need glasses or contacts while others don’t. Before they even came up with corrective lenses think how differently a person with glasses life would be compared to a person who didn’t need them. (or you could just go a day without any glasses or contacts : P) It is amazing how such little variations could have such a huge impact on our lives and truly make all of our worlds unique.

-Allan Nicholas