4 Things That Could Prove The World Isn't Real | Unveiled

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4 Things That Could Prove the World Isn’t Real</h4>

We know that, sometimes, things happen in our everyday lives that just can’t be explained. The most widely-cited example is probably deja vu, that eerie feeling you get whenever it feels as though you’ve been somewhere (or seen something) before. It’s a common phenomena. But, every so often there are examples of something much more than deja vu; of bizarre theories and experiences that ultimately cause those who encounter them to question their very existence.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re taking a closer look at four things that could prove the world isn’t real.

We’ll start with probably the most famous thought experiment about the nature of reality; Schrödinger's cat. It’s a tale as old as time in terms of quantum science, but it crops up so often because it’s come to be a vital demonstration of exactly how weird and unknown the world is. It was devised by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. Legend says the first time it was ever voiced was during a (probably pretty complicated) conversation between Schrödinger and one Albert Einstein.

So, how does it work? Imagine you have a cat inside a sealed box. Along with the cat, there's a vial of poison, and a radioactive atom. Schrödinger's box is set up in such a way that the atom can decay, releasing the poison and killing the cat OR it can remain stable, leaving the cat safe, well and still alive. The fate of the cat is tied to the behavior of the atom. But here's the twist: until we open the box and observe the cat, quantum mechanics says that that fate is uncertain. In the quantum world, things can exist in multiple states simultaneously, thanks to superposition. So, before we open the box, Schrödinger's cat is both alive AND dead at the same time. So the theory goes.

In general, it challenges our common-sense understanding of reality because, in the everyday, something is either one thing or another, not both. Here, though, what’s important is that the atom's decay is a truly random process, and we can't predict exactly when it will happen. Therefore, again, until we open the box and check, the atom exists in a superposition of both decayed and undecayed states. This then extends to the entire system - i.e., everything inside the closed box - including the cat, whose life literally depends on it.

Ultimately, though, this isn't about cats; it's about the fundamental nature of particles at the quantum level. And it’s an idea that has since been developed, not least by the winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2022, Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger. In separate studies, and over a period of around fifty years, they all found proof that Schrödinger was right, and that on the quantum level particles are inevitably linked. One possible interpretation is that it could imply that actually nothing is real until it’s observed. Which, from an individual point of view, grants every single one of us with a weirdly massive amount of power.

But next, let’s take a closer look at something that seemingly isn’t an imagined construct first and foremost; our own physical bodies. Because, according to one tech story, at least, we may only need to look inside ourselves to find evidence of the unrealness of everything.

In August 2017, some bizarre headlines made the rounds, with reports that scientists had managed to hack into a computer using DNA. And, actually, that claim wasn’t hyperbole, it was true. The study in question was conducted by a team at the University of Washington, in America. It set out to investigate “Computer Security, Privacy, and DNA Sequencing”, and ultimately found - reportedly for the first time ever - that DNA could be used to compromise computing systems.

Now, the truth here is perhaps a little less concerning that you might immediately imagine. Through a series of tests, the team were essentially able to show that the patterns found in DNA could be converted into malicious code, which then could be transferred into digital systems - especially as DNA research involves many computational elements. However, at this stage there’s no real suggestion that a person could ever simply use their own biology to hack into anyone else’s private stuff. So, you needn’t worry about that. The study is more to show that various DNA sequencing techniques and softwares are vulnerable. A potentially big problem given that DNA data is a) widely shared and b) has become exponentially cheaper to obtain in recent years.

But, regardless of whether or not DNA hacks will trigger some kind of cyber apocalypse, why is it relevant to the question of the world not being real? Well, one takeaway from the study is more simply that it’s a direct representation of exactly how programmed we are. Everything about us really can be diluted down into a digital code, suggesting that - with the right know-how - we really could all be reduced into a digital file. It’s not science fiction anymore, it’s an uncomfortable fact. And so, while on some level the world is still real, it’s not in any way that we currently grasp it. While Schrödinger's cat hints that realness only happens when we observe it, the concept of DNA as a digital virus shows that even the most fundamental building blocks of us can be rearranged into something that’s totally different. Our physical selves can easily be converted. You thought you were only your body but, actually, you're potentially a non-physical entity, as well. Naturally, and without any far-future modifications necessary. And that’s a little disturbing.

Next, though, and not every apparent instance of the code of life revealing itself is quite so unsettling. Social media is awash with snapshots of seeming glitches in the matrix. This might be a photograph of strangers sitting next to each other on the subway, but all are wearing the same clothes. Or it could be a video of two people walking alongside each other in perfect sync, despite being wholly unaware that their actions are being copied. As bizarre as these moments are, however, they can almost always be written off as plain coincidence. With clothing, for example, it’s perhaps not so surprising that any two (or more) people would choose to wear a couple of the same items. However, sometimes the coincidences do seem to go further, and American history serves up two of the best.

First, the birth and death of the writer, Mark Twain. He was born in November 1835, he died in April 1910. However, what’s interesting about those dates is that both double up as rare moments in time when the elusive Halley’s Comet appeared in the skies of Earth. Twain was born when the comet could still be seen, two weeks after its closest approach; and he died just one day after its next closest approach, seventy-four years later. The author is even said to have predicted his own passing, as he’s quoted foretelling; “The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together”. For many, the scale of this coincidence is enough to hugely question the authenticity of what’s real.

Finally, though, and this time to the deaths of two American Presidents; Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. The pair died on the same day in 1826, July 4th, a.k.a. the 50th anniversary of American Independence. You might think that that, in itself, would be coincidence enough, but it’s said that both passings were even more closely linked. Throughout their lives, Jefferson and Adams were friends, and then rivals, and then friends again. They were founding fathers of the USA before political clashes drove them apart and into opposite parties. Years later, they reconciled and remained close until their deaths. It’s said that, during his last words, Adams even remarked upon how Jefferson had survived him. However, unbeknownst to Adams, Jefferson had actually died a couple hours beforehand. For some, it’s as though their lives were entwined. In modern terms, we might even say that they were entangled. 

So could this have been a real world instance of something like Schrödinger's cat in action, extrapolated all the way up to the top of US politics? Could Mark Twain’s coming and going represent more than just a peculiarity? Might the contemporary realization that DNA is hackable offer some kind of explanation for when things happen in life that are otherwise unexplainable? Clearly, none of this serves to prove the world isn’t real… but it does leave cause to wonder, can you ever really trust reality?