34 | New Scientist | 1 February 2020
Features Cover story
We humans have a bit of a problem with reality.
We experience it all the time, but struggle to
define it, let alone understand it.
It seems so solid and yet, when we examine
it closely, it melts away like a mirage. We don’t
know when it began, how big it is, where it came
from and where it is going, and we certainly have
no clue why it exists.
Nonetheless, the desire to understand reality
seems part of our nature, and we have come a
long way. What was once explained in terms of
divine creation is now in the purview of science.
Over the past 200 years or so, we have peeled
back the layers of reality, even if we are still not
entirely sure what we have revealed.
If anything, the mystery has only deepened.
We are now at a point where it is equally credible
to claim that reality is entirely dependent on
subjective experience, or entirely independent
of it. Reality has never felt so unreal.
Over the next 10 pages, we delve into the latest
ideas about reality, from our own everyday
experience to the fundamental physics that
seeks to describe the true nature of the cosmos.
The ideas can be dizzying, but there is no greater
intellectual challenge than trying to grasp the
meaning of everything.Reality:
THE HARDER WE
LOOK, THE LESS
REAL IT SEEMS