Friday, February 24, 2006

Maya and reality

I was just curious the other day what google would spurn out for the search on the above topic. The wikipedia article seems to be quite engrossing , and I haven't finished it yet.

I later laid my eyes on the first result of my search - a book 'MAYA - The world as virtual reality'. Thought I would provide the link for those intrigued and the sci-fi fans atleast. This book by the way deals with vitual reality in a computer science perspective, which I think would interest many.

An excerpt:
"In the world of modern science, consciousness is reduced to a fading epiphenomenon, left over after the brain has been physically explained. It seems to arise when matter is suitably organized, but scientists and philosophers have been unable to explain why complex organization should produce anything beyond complex physical behavior. Yet consciousness won't go away."
Well, a goldfish cannot even get close to how much we can explain - it has a memory span of just 3 minutes. We definitely have limitations too regarding the extent of intellect we are built with. We are afterall just another animal in this universe. Ant is an animal too. Do you think it can figure this with the limited brain it has? We too are ants relative to this universe. (Btw, does the ant even care? Hah!) Explaining metaphysical aspects and super-science thus requires another dimension of thinking, which we lack.

So I would term such books bogus if it is just mathematical proofs coming in. Because mathematics cannot define conciousness, not even quantify it. (Unless of-course you are interested in science-'fiction' which to any scientist would be an oxymoron).

2 comments:

Unknown said...

No actually I got myself confused talking Kula into it :p

Unknown said...

maya is a very good animation software as well;