The Tree is Not a “Tree”—Part 1

We create an understanding of the world around us—based on messages that our various senses gather. We become convinced that the real world matches the images we’ve made; particularly as our repeated experiences solidify them, and as we confirm them with other people. We rarely pause and acknowledge that these images exist only inside our heads, and that the world “out there” is nothing like what we’ve perceived.

One way to consider this situation is to ponder how our human perceptions differ from those of another critter—say, a spider. When I approach a spider’s web I may see this little creature poised at the center, waiting for lunch. Its eyesight is poor. It may not even see me. Why should it? It makes no sense to overload its senses with useless information about my appearance. Its relevant world consists of only its web, its immediate environment, and the food that might come. It’s exquisitely sensitive to the slightest vibration of its web—able to discern whether it’s the wind, lunch, or my finger. Yet it knows nothing of the wider world—and is even unable to sense most of it. Why should it?

And are we any different from the spider—whose limited senses register only a narrow, incomplete image of the world? Our senses are also limited; they provide us with only the information we need to survive. If we could take in more data our brain would become hopelessly overloaded, so we’ve evolved to ignore most of our world.

Let’s look a little deeper, and consider how we create an image in our head of something like a tree—an image that is neither real nor complete. Our sense of sight is based solely on the reception of photons that impinge upon our pupils. The photons that come from the tree originate in the sun; they’re reflected by the tree. They enter the eye, strike the retina, and then the optic nerve transmits an electrical stimulus that goes to the brain. It results in a symbol created in the brain—a symbol based solely on that electrical impulse. It’s not the tree; it’s an abstraction in our heads.

But what about color, one might ask? Aren’t the leaves green? Isn’t that something integral to the tree? No, color is perceived solely as the types of photons that got reflected. The sun’s energy is radiated by photons of many wavelengths (many colors). The trees “leaves” absorb some of those photons and reflect others. Our sense of color is no more than our eye receiving a particular flavor of photon; which carries a particular energy level that creates a particular electrical impulse on its way to the brain. Just another abstract symbol.

The “tree” is really nothingness... next time