Scientists Confirm: Reality is Real!

Well that's a relief!

Actually, all kidding aside, there is some legitimately important news on the scientific front: According to this Economist article, scientists have apparently resolved a fundamental uncertainty at the heart of physics: whether or not the world exists when we're not looking at it.

According to the article:

"The two teams used the same technique in their experiments. They managed to do what had previously been thought impossible: they probed reality without disturbing it. Not disturbing it is the quantum-mechanical equivalent of not really looking. So they were able to show that the universe does indeed exist when it is not being observed."

There are many implications to this discovery. First of all, on a personal note, it confirms the first premise of my philosophy ("Spiritual Rationalism") which is that: "Reality is Real." While that doesn't seem like a bold statement, it was quite controversial anong many people versed in science. Thankfully, it appears that common sense has prevailed.

Second of all, it's unclear what implications this discovery will have on New Age ideas (popularized by best-selling books like The Secret) in which people are told that "science proves" that "Reality is not real" and that the Reality we live in (even though it's not "real") can be manipulated through our emotions (specifically, our emotional state when we're "observing," and thus "creating" Reality). If I remember correctly, the New Age gurus call this "The Law of Attraction." Practically speaking, today's article should undermine the foundation of that "Law." But we'll see. As the old saying goes, "People see what they want to see." But as today's discovery reveals, that's just a figure of speech; it's not the essense of Reality!

-Todd