Stephen Hawkings documentary

The brain is the collection of particles that acts according to the law of physics. Our brain controls our behavior via electrical and chemical signals In fact; our body is like a vessel, to sustain the brain. Ever thought that our body could just be a projection of our brain, meaning it actually does not exist. Everything that is experienced is actually determined by the brain? This leads to an interesting theory, the simulation theory.

The simulation theory, also known as the simulated reality, is one in which our conscious minds may or may not be aware that they are living in a simulated world. This is a skeptical theory, which I find it really intriguing. It implies that the vegetable soup that I consumed 30 minutes ago may just be a sequence of code. It is the desire of my brain to consume food which manifested the vegetable soup and the feeling of fullness is not because of the food itself, but because the craving of the brain is being fulfilled. Doesn’t this correlate with the fact that once we do not answer a specific craving, other cravings come to haunt us?

In the programme, the butterfly effect was brought up. In a nutshell, it means that a small variable would actually lead to a large difference in the later stage. It got its name as it is derived from a theoretical example if a hurricane’s formation is contingent on whether or not a distant butterfly flapped its wings several weeks before.  In my opinion, this is a theory that we always encounter in our daily life. I am sure that there are moments where you go ‘ wa heng sia, heng I did  (something) so now I am able to handle this situation’ Something that was once viewed as insignificant actually helped us in achieving our goals in the end. Such beautiful theory has a darker side, which is, if we do not set things right from the start, we are most likely gonna fail at the end. Hence the saying, failing to plan = planning to fail. How true.

It was also postulated that the meaning of life is just a piece of model of reality that we each build in our mind. We believe in what we think as possible. An example from the programme: There is a table in the room and when we leave the room and close the door, the table is ‘gone’. What we believe is that the table is stationary and will still be there when we get back. But… is there a possibility that the table has flown off the window, rotated around the earth once and goes back to the original position at the moment we open the door of the room? ‘siao ah’ must be going through your mind. It went through mine too but when you think about it, anything could have happened at that period of time. We believe that the table is stationary because that theory fits perfectly with what we always accept as a reality. So is that a true reality or just a model of reality in our brains?

Physics is amazing. It is and will always be around us no matter how much one hates physics. This brought back the memory of me discussing the beauty of quantum physics with a friend of mine who did physics in TCD for 2 years before changing to medicine. Embrace physics, embrace life =)