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Conscious Mind over Matter

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Submitted By YogiBerra
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The Conscious Mind over Matter
No stranger to uncovering the differences between the ostensibly real and the metaphysical, 1999 Time person of the century Albert Einstein once stated, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” Einstein’s chief contention here is that reality is merely a function of the conscious mind’s attempt to make sense of the environment. Since the conscious is concerned with its ultimate survival, humans often view material objects as the full composition of true reality. In The Thirteenth Floor, director Josef Rusnak muddies the water of what is real and virtual through his story of new technology that allows for a safe and successful transference of consciousness from one being to an artificial being known as a “unit.” Stemming from this idea that the conscious is independent from the physical realm, many questions remain unanswered concerning the plausibility of such technology. Furthermore, if this virtual reality technology was put in use, could the computerized units possess a conscious mind of their own, which is free of significant mental impairment? Holistically, Rusnak’s film challenges the basic principles on which physicalism was built by arguing that reality is a creation of the conscious mind, and therefore reality does possess many non-physical components.
Mankind’s perception of reality is limited in scope to that which is visible and present around us. The same holds true when applied individually, since a person’s understanding of reality is a function of what the environment suggests is plausible. Perhaps literature’s greatest representation of this idea is Plato’s infamous book The Republic. Rooted in illustrating education’s impact on the nature of man and our perception of reality, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave suggests that one’s discernment of reality’s limitations is bound by what the senses

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