More To That
Reality Is Never Strange. We Are.
Our expectations of the world are truly perplexing
The strangest thing about reality is how un-strange it actually is.
Let me explain.
When Newton discovered the laws of gravity in the 17th century, this was a fundamental departure from the prevailing paradigm at the time. Prior to Newton, people believed that celestial bodies orbited around one another in a “natural motion” without understanding why.
We like to believe that Newton updated the nature of reality, and that we were all better off for it.
But here’s the thing.
Reality itself didn’t change one bit as a result of Newton’s discoveries. The world was always governed by gravity, whether we knew about it or not. While he helped to update our view of reality, the fundamental structures of the universe had been intact for billions of years before him. And the universe continued to do what it always did, long after his last breath was taken.
The same thing happened after Einstein came into the picture. He observed that Newtonian gravitation was only a small part of a greater narrative. This led to the theory of general relativity, which launched another paradigm shift that updated our view of reality.
