[The following was my first attempt at using o1 and voice instead of my usual voice to Google doc to GPT-4. Asked it to write a 600 word blog post on a minute ramble]
Seeing Through Many Lenses: Understanding Our Multiple Realities
We often talk about “reality” as if it’s a single, solid thing. But the truth is, each of us experiences many different realities inside our own head. Think about it: there’s the visual reality of what our eyes perceive, the smelling reality of scents drifting past our nose, the tactile reality when we touch something, the reality of physical movement as we feel ourselves shift and navigate the world—the list goes on. Our minds combine all these sensory snapshots and create what we commonly call “the real world.” But is it? In a sense, yes—it’s our world, woven together from each sense. Yet each sense can be misleading in isolation, or can be interpreted differently by different people, which complicates the notion of what’s “real.” In the end, there’s an even deeper layer to consider: the shared reality with others, the collective experience that defines much of human existence.
To understand these multiple realities, let’s start with our senses. Our visual reality might trick us with illusions, shadows, or perspective shifts—think of times you’ve misread a street sign in poor light or when something looked closer than it actually was. Our smelling reality might stir up deeply personal memories—like the scent of a specific perfume that instantly transports you back to childhood. Taste, touch, and hearing each offer their own interpretations of the world, sending signals that our brain pieces together. These signals, however, aren’t always as reliable as we assume. We hear about the wind, but maybe our ears are picking up echoes that change our perception of distance. We feel a surface and assume it’s hot or cold, but that can depend on whether our skin is already warm or cold. In other words, all these smaller realities are highly subjective.
Inside our head, we juggle these parallel experiences like different puzzle pieces. The picture we assemble each moment is, in truth, unique to us. That uniqueness can become a problem when we start to believe our personal version of reality is the only valid version. This is where conflicts often arise: two people can witness the same event and walk away with totally different accounts, each absolutely certain that theirs is the correct perspective. Yet if we step back, we see that both are simply painting their own realities, shaped by all those sensory inputs, plus their memories, biases, and emotional states. When we forget that subjective filter, we’re prone to frustration or misunderstandings—especially when we insist our picture is the real deal.
But there’s a bigger question: what’s really real? One way to define this is by looking at our shared reality, the space where multiple individuals agree on facts, observe similar outcomes, and acknowledge a common ground. For example, if ten different people stand at ten different angles around a sculpture, each might describe it differently—but if each person acknowledges they’re looking at the same sculpture, we have a shared understanding. Science, societal norms, and communal experiences all play key roles in shaping this shared layer of reality. It’s not that one person’s individual viewpoint is worthless; rather, individual viewpoints are data points that only become richer, more meaningful, and more “real” when cross-checked against others’ perspectives.
In a world where we can easily become trapped in our own heads—where social media algorithms feed us what we want to see, or where echo chambers confirm our biases—it’s more critical than ever to recognize the difference between our personal, sense-based realities and the collective, shared reality. Being mindful that our personal lens is just one of many fosters empathy and understanding. We realize we can’t automatically assume that our viewpoint is the undisputed truth. Instead, we can take a step back and say, “What’s for real for real?” If we find common ground with others, test our assumptions, and respect that multiple viewpoints can coexist, we’re far less likely to get stuck in the trap of believing our private mental landscape is the ultimate reality. By balancing our rich internal experiences with the shared tapestry of life around us, we honor both the magic of personal perception and the grounding truth of collective understanding.