May1,2013 TheHardProblemstheFigmentofUniverse

TheHardProblemstheFigmentofUniverse
ByNirodhaGunadasa info@introspectors.org May1,2013 There are problems that seem to be challenging to the limits of human intelligence. It is sometimes arguedthatnooneeverwillfindanswerstothesehardproblems.Belowarethepopularhardproblems arrangedtoanorderwhere,bottomonesarethehardest. 1. TheproblemofuniverseIsthespaceinfiniteordoesithasasize?Whendidthespacestarted? Whendoesthetimestarted?Andend? 2. TheproblemofselfWhatisme? 3. Thehardproblemofconsciousness 4. Whatistime? These are the most popular because; they are about the fundamentals of existence, and they are understood by everybody and many of us are passionate and curious about them. The hard problems areabouttwoaspectsofphilosophyandsciencetheuniverseandtheconsciousness. Although some of these questions seem real challenges to the human intelligence, some of the questions do not even exist, because the problem itself is an illusion of perception. For example, if you can understand the figment of absolute space, which is explained below, you will get yourself cleared off on followingquestions. Isthespaceinfiniteordoesithasasize? Whendidthespacestarted? Whendoesthetimestarted?Andend? 1. Theproblemofuniverse First,youneedtounderstandthesimpletheoryofrelativity ThoughtExperiment1:Imagineaninfinitespaceandaspheremovinginthespace. Imagine, you see the sphere move in a straight line in constant velocity. Then imagine you getting onto that sphere. Is it true that you and the sphere are still goingthroughthespaceinthesamevelocity?Justimagineforawhile. Then, imagine an infinite space and a stopped sphere. You are standing on that sphere. You see yourself standing on a sphere and emptiness all around. What is thedifferencebetweenthisseenandthepreviousonewhereyouwerestandingon www.introspectors.org|byNirodhaGunadasa 1

May1,2013 TheHardProblemstheFigmentofUniverse amovingsphere? Velocity can be thought only in relation to objects. There is no such thing called the velocity with which you go passing the space. There is no stopped space. So, in both cases, you only stand on a sphere. There is no meaning to the velocity of the sphere in relation to the space. Velocity can be thought only inrelationtoobjects. The stopped space that you believe is a figment of your imagination. Figments exist in your mind unknowntoyou.Buttheyformpartofyourperceptionandinfluencethewayyouunderstandthings. Secondly,youneedtorealizetheSpecialtheoryofrelativity When two objects (say A and B) move in opposite directions, time in object A is slower than time of object B when it is observed from object B. The time is inversely proportionate to the relative velocity. This is the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein which has been proven over andoveragainthoughexperiments. Further, when two objects move in different directions, lengthinobjectAisshorterthanlengthofobjectBwhenit is observed from object B. When two objects move in different directions, volume in object A is smaller than volume of object B when it is observed from object B. When two objects move in different directions, weight in object A is smaller than weight of objectBwhenitisobservedfromobjectB. When there is no absolute stopped space, there is no meaning to its time. Because, time is something related to velocity. When you cannot relate space to velocity, there is no meaning to the time of space. Similarly,spacedoesnothaveavolume. Space is nothingness. Nothingness has nothing other than nothingness. It does not have a time, length or volume. Your figment of stopped space and qualities of that space gives rise to the illusion of a day spacestarted,adayspaceends,adaywheretimeofspacestarted,adaywheretimeendsandasizeto the space. It gives you an illusion of a universal time and universal volume. The reality is, time is something related to objects. Length, distance and volume are things related to objects. Objects may appear or die in different times related to objects themselves. Objects may exist in distances in relation tothemandtheirvelocities.Butthespacehasnothingtodowithtime,lengthorvolume. So these are problems that do not exist, you see them exist because of the figment of stopped space thatisinyou.Lookintoyourselfandseethefigmentasafigment.Thereafteryouareclearaboutthese hardproblems. The figments in our mind create illusions of perception. And the illusions give rise to questions that do not exist. So, it is important to look into our selves and identify the figments within yourself before lookingouttofindanswers. www.introspectors.org|byNirodhaGunadasa 2

May1,2013 TheHardProblemstheFigmentofUniverse 2. Theproblemofself Like the figment of absolute stopped space project a universal time and generate problems of the date universe started, the date time started etc., a figment we call the figment of perception projects a person. So we have problems of what is self, from where I am coming and what is death. Self is a projectionoffigments. If you can see how self is projected out of figments, like you can now see the projection of universal time and you have given it off, you can give up the belief on self and live. Thereby, you can be a living being that sees the generation of self and sees it as prejudice: a living being that lives with self but seeing that self is none. Such a being perhaps shall be considered as superior above all other living creaturesbecausefundamentallyitistheultimatementalstatusanintelligentbeingachieves. However,realizationofthefigmentofperceptionandtheselfismuchharderthantherealizationofthe figment of space. We have tried to compose a system which you can download from www.introspectors.org/process.pdfleadingaverageintelligentpersontounderstandtheillusionofself. However,youneedtohavelotofcourage,lotofeffortandtimetogettheproperrealization. The problems which we dont know whether figment based, reality based or conceptual are the real two hard problems. They are the Hard Problem of Consciousness and the Problem of What is Time? Inthisessaywewillonlytrytounderstandwhattheseproblemsare andwhytheyaresohard. 3. Thehardproblemofconsciousness The hard problem was sonamed by David Chalmers in 1995. The problem is a major focus of research in contemporary philosophy of mind, and there is a considerable body of empirical research in psychology, neuroscience, and even quantum physics. Distinguishing the real hard problem from the easy ones, the so calledproblemisisolated. To understand the hard part of consciousness, it is useful to divide the associated problems of consciousness into "hard" and "easy" problems. The easy problems of consciousness are those that seem directly susceptible to the standard methods of cognitive science, whereby a phenomenon is explained in terms of computational or neural mechanisms.Thehardproblemsarethosethatseemtoresistthosemethods. Theeasyproblemsofconsciousnessincludethoseofexplainingthefollowingphenomena: theabilitytodiscriminate,categorize,andreacttoenvironmentalstimuli; theintegrationofinformationbyacognitivesystem; www.introspectors.org|byNirodhaGunadasa 3

May1,2013 TheHardProblemstheFigmentofUniverse The really hard problem of consciousness is the problem ofexperience. When we think and perceive, there is a whir of informationprocessing, but there is also a subjective aspect. As Nagel (1974) has put it, there issomethingitisliketobeaconsciousorganism.Thissubjectiveaspectis experience. When we see, for example, weexperiencevisual sensations: thefeltqualityofredness,theexperienceofdarkandlight,thequalityof depthinavisualfield. Followthefollowingthoughtexperiments,soyouwillrealizewhatthehardproblemis. Thought experiment 2: Mary is adapted in a black and white room and she has never seen colours. Whileintheroom,shelearnseverythingaboutcoloursthespectrucmoflight,thevisualfieldofeyes, how the brain identify colours and everything. So she knows all the things about colour. After that we showherred.Whensheseesred,doesshelearnsomethingthatshehaveneverlearned?Sheseeswhat readislike.Andthisisthehardproblemofconsciousness. Thought experiment 3: Imagine what its like for the bat to hunt by echolocation on a dark night. But it is still plausible that there are facts about what its like to be a bat, facts about how things seem from the bats perspective.And even though we may have good reason to believe that consciousness is a physical phenomenon (due to considerations of mental causation, the success of materialist science, and so on), we are left in the dark aboutthebatsconsciousexperience.Thisisthehardproblemofconsciousness. Why is it that when our cognitive systems engage in visual and auditory informationprocessing, we have visual or auditory experience: the quality of deep blue, the sensation of middle C? How can we explain why there is something it is like to entertain a mental image, or to experience an emotion? It is widelyagreedthatexperiencearisesfromaphysicalbasis,butwehavenogoodexplanationofwhyand how it so arises. Why should physical processing give rise to a rich inner life at all? It seems objectively unreasonablethatitshould,andyetitdoes. 4. Whatistime? Two contrasting viewpoints on time divide many prominent philosophers.Oneviewisthattimeispartofthefundamentalstructure of theuniverse adimensionindependent of events, in which events occur insequence referred to asNewtonian time. The opposing view www.introspectors.org|byNirodhaGunadasa 4 thereportabilityofmentalstates; theabilityofasystemtoaccessitsowninternalstates; thefocusofattention; thedeliberatecontrolofbehavior; thedifferencebetweenwakefulnessandsleep.

May1,2013 TheHardProblemstheFigmentofUniverse isthattimedoesnotrefertoanykindof"container"thateventsandobjects"movethrough",nortoany entity that "flows", but that it is instead part of a fundamental intellectual structure (together withspaceandnumber) within which humans sequence and compare events. Thissecondviewholdsthattimeisneitheraneventnorathing,andthusisnot itselfmeasurablenorcanitbetravelled.
Time is used to define other quantities such as velocity so defining time in terms of such quantities would result in circularity of definition. Furthermore, it may be that there is a subjective component to time, but whether or not time itself is "felt", as a sensation or an experience, has never been settled.

Followingvideoprovidesaninsightintothedepthoftheproblem,whatistime. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_leHGTm55Y The two real hard problems might be beyond the limits of human perception and intelligence, or perhaps they may be simply explained one day. Perhaps they may also be phenomena of figments. What ever they are, The important problem any intelligent living being shall question and get resolved is, what is living? What is me? And what is death? The problem is difficult but you can find the answer because it is all about understanding figments. Some guiding lights for you, I have provided in www.introspectors.org

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