Plato's cave is the symbol of selective information. When those people sat on the floor of that cave, they saw shadows on the wall. And because those people had no other information than shadows on the wall. They believed that those shadows were the only reality that exists.
But we are living in metaverses and the internet. How can we say that we are living in Plato's cave? We are searching the internet and looking for information that supports our ideology. Or we are searching for information that makes us friends with somebody we respect.
So if we are using large data masses we can say that we are using multiple sources. But the problem is that all information that we are looking supporting one kind of agenda. And we have no ability or will to search for the things that are against the opinions that we want to hear. We don't want to hear or see things.
That is against something that we used to think of as one truth. When we must not hear or see things that are not pleasing us we can pass those things. Willing to use the internet is voluntary. So who wants to hear or see things that force them to change their opinions?
People must just find things that please them. And that means even a large number of data will not cover the entirety of that data and involves only one side view of things. When people are willing to get the information there is only one side which means that the person is in Plato's cave.
A large number of one-sided information makes only a larger version of Plato's cave than the smaller number of information sources. So we have more information than ever before. But we use that opportunity to make larger caves where are more shadows. Or maybe somebody brings some tree to some corner of our cave. And that thing tells that there is some kind of plant. Maybe that plant is a juniper.
But the fact is that one juniper is not all plants. And that one plant does not give the full image of the entire forest. If we want to make research about the entirety of the forests we should not make our conclusions by using some special tree that lives in a special place.
Junipers do not grow in all forests. And that means one special case can turn the research upside down. We can believe that all forests are full of junipers. This is one thing that causes problems with the research. They are full of unique things.
Avenue of Juniperus chinensis (Wikipedia)
But they are not showing the entirety. If some people are talking about forests they should not select one certain tree to the point of observation. Or if those trees are in some park, can we say that the park is the typical environment for that tree?
Same way if the researchers are searching for things like magnetars that are super fast rotating neutron stars they can, of course, focus on one certain magnetar. That research gives very interesting data about the behavior of one magnetar.
But that thing will not tell about what kind of magnetars usually are. And then we must ask one question: is that magnetar the typical representative of the magnetars? Or is that magnetar some kind of special case like the creator of the FRBs:s (Fast Radio Bursts)? Or are all magnetars create the FRBs?
Well, we always select the information that we want to see. One of the reasons for that is that we are so busy. If we want to get information and deep analysis of that thing. We must use multiple sources. And that thing takes time. So we are looking at one source or maybe we trust that the article's writer checked sources and that's it. We have no time to spend all the time for checking sources.
Sometimes we all write things that sources are not checked as they should. One of the reasons for that is public opinion. That's why we don't dare to write some things by using a critical writing style. We are afraid that public opinion turns against us. Or maybe we have no time to check the information that feels meaningless.
When we are at work we read and select the information. That is useful for our work. But does that thing take us away from everyday problems? Or maybe that thing means that there is a dead sector in our life. That means there are always sectors that involve information that could help us, or involves important things.
If we are thinking situation where we are sitting in our home. And see virtual images of some tropical lands. We can see multiple things in those images and films. But we cannot feel temperatures and other kinds of things that are involved in real experiences.
https://fromplatoscavetoreality.blogspot.com/
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