At 11/9/09 10:39 PM, amaterasu wrote:
In other words, we do not know what type of configuration far far away matter is in at our current frame of time. All we see is the light, gamma rays, radio waves, etc that has been emitted by said matter.
But it doesn't matter what frame of time we're in: it's still reality. Like, are the dinosaurs not real because we can't directly observe them? No, we have evidence and thanks to a basic understanding of a number of different premises we are able to extrapolate what we imagine the reality to be with an increasing level of accuracy as more information is present.
It's not that there is an illusion, it's that there's lack of clarity. I mean, the argument you're making is that we don't KNOW anything, we don't SEE anything, etc. That's a philosophical consideration that many may agree with, but when it comes to claiming that reality is an illusion, the argument has overstepped its bounds.
Human observation or understanding is not necessary for something to be real. Anyway, you're referring to a concept of science that becomes incredibly important at the quantum scale. We don't even have to travel those great distances you suggest to be unable to observe, we can simply change the scale of size (which, interestingly enough, is related to speed... as something approaches light speed length is distorted as well as time). At the subatomic level, humans are unable to (directly) observe changes. Why? Because our methods of observation are such that we must induce change in the system in order to observe it. In order to 'see' something, we need light. Light is, at it's smallest, a single subatomic particle called a photon. How do we see a reaction on the subatomic scale if only one photon is emitted, or none?
