Reblog If You're A Nobody On Tumblr But You're Still Very Proud Of Your Blog.

Reblog if you're a nobody on Tumblr but you're still very proud of your blog.

14.05.03 Photography by Trabue Gentry.

The Reality of Our Senses

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? The answer to this question, originally posed in 1710 by philosopher George Berkeley, is, quite simply, no. Why? Because sound is nothing more than vibrations captured by the ear which sends an electrical representation of these vibrations to the brain for interpretation. A tree falling in the forest does create vibrations but if there is no one around to capture and processes these vibrations then there is no sound.

So, is what we hear an accurate representation of the vibrations? Again, the answer is no. What we experience as sound cannot be compared to the original sound the source makes since the source can’t make sound. Only hearing equipped animals can make sound through the process described earlier. So, what is it that we hear? Sound is an experience created by the brain to represent certain physical activities that create vibrations i.e. the drawing of a bow across the strings of an instrument, air being forced out of the lungs across the vocal cords of a crying baby and, yes, a tree falling in the forest.

So, all the time we believe there is sound all around us, we are wrong. In actuality, there are vibrations all around us being captured by the ear and interpreted by the brain to create what we experience as sound, a representation of the activity that created the vibrations. Simply put, vibrations are all round us but sound, quite literally, is all in our head.

All of our senses work in the same way that our hearing works as far as representing something outside of our brain. Our bodies are covered w sensory receptors which send representations of these receptions or “data input” to the brain for interpretation. Without these sensors we would not be able to see the person next to us. We would not be able to hear, smell, taste or feel them. For all intents and purposes, we would be completely isolated. We would not be able to experience anything in our physical reality.

All this goes to demonstrate that we are, in reality, isolated. How is that, you might ask. Because everything we experience in our world is a mere representation of the real thing. When we look at something, what we see, what we experience is only a representation of what we are looking in the very same way that a picture of a person on a magazine cover is a representation of the person, not the person their self. Since this rule applies to all our senses, we are truly isolated, in every sense, from the real world; from everything and everyone. Ironically, we are separated from the physical world by the very thing that provides us w our only link to this reality: Our brain. ~ Trabue Gentry

I like what I see so far and glad to follow you and see what you post next :) i like that you post a lot of original thoughts and ideas! Keep it up

Thank you so much for your very kind words, Miss Kitty. I went for a leisurely stroll through your blog and wound up staying there for about 30 minutes and liked quite a few of your entries. I like that you post your random thoughts and I like your random thoughts as well. Good stuff! I enjoyed the visit as you seem a very copacetic person :-) ~ Trabue

There's a very good reason for this. Nicotine, when smoked in cigarettes, is a very fast acting ant-depressant, ant-anxiety agent and pain killer all wrapped up in one nice convenient little package. In fact, it's so good at these things that, during WWII, the U.S. Army promoted smoking and issued free cartons of cigarettes to soldiers. Cigarettes were also standard issue in the medic's kit. When a soldier was wounded, the first thing the medic would do is throw a cigarette in their mouth. So, it's really no wonder that people smoke cigarettes. In the immortal words of John Bender "Smoke up, Johnny!" ~ Trabue Gentry