An Introduction of Sorts

Coffee – a 100 word story

In the beginning there was coffee. It was a good coffee, deep dark hue, rich flavour, highly invigorating. Then came flavoured coffee. It wasn’t the same coffee. It was different. Somehow less coffee, more product. People where buying it though because of the marketing. It was good marketing. Sold a lot of coffee. Then the science of flavouring grew and it was better than coffee. Soon, no one remembered unflavoured coffee. Then they started colouring the coffee. Red coffee, blue coffee, rainbow coloured coffee. Flavouring also changed, evolved. It was an introduction of sorts. Something new. It wasn’t coffee though.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

What is Reality?

Reality. It comes from the word “real” which is three letters removed from the word “surreal”. This podcast Is a semi-philosophical look at reality. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so – you’ve been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about reality for a while. We’ll ignore “I think therefore I am” for now and take reality as something that exists for real outside of ourselves, in spite of our senses being somewhat unreliable in their interpretation of reality. We do seem to live our day to day lives in reality, whatever it may be, though it’s starting to get augmented by other things that are not quite reality, like Pokemons for example, that is if you play Pokemon Go. So, how do we tell what’s real and what’s not real appart if what’s not real is starting to invade what’s real?

We might tell things apart by trying to define them, so, we should probably start by defining what reality is. As human beings we like defining the world around us in an attempt to understand our reality. So, how do we define reality itself? Can reality be defined? How real is real really? Is the definition of something as real as that which is being defined? What does “define” mean anyway? How do we define “define”? Hmm… Defining things can be complicated. I need a break.

Rent – a 100 word story

A rift opened and the little green men started pouring out. The message was played over and over again in every known language: “people of earth, your attention please. Your rent is overdue. You would be evacuated.” Gravity failed and people started drifting out into space, screaming. Some people tried to hang onto furniture and other odd objects but the little green men zapped them with ray guns until their grip failed. They demolished all the buildings and made sure every trace of humanity was erased forever. When it was all over, the quadropods moved in. They paid in advance.

What is a Definition?

Welcome back. We are still trying to define reality, I think, or we might actually be trying to define what a definition is in order to use it to define reality. Now I’m confused. Let’s see. A definition is probably akin to putting a label on something in order to recognize what it is. There you go. That makes sense, well, somewhat. Let’s try to define something and see if it works. Let us start smaller than reality by trying to define something simple like, let’s say, a door. Is a door smaller than reality? I think it is… hmm…

You might define a door as a barrier, separating spaces with the intent of regulating movement between said spaces. A door might block the way by being close or allow passage by being open. That sounds just about right. Now, let’s say we get rid of the door altogether and put a robot in its place. The robot would regulate who passes through where the door used to be by punching anyone he doesn’t like in the face. Is that robot now a door? We seem to know what a door is. We seem to know what a robot is. We don’t think about them as one and the same, but as we see, that robot is now serving the same function as the door, albeit in a somewhat different manner, so by the way we defined the door, the robot is now a door. Maybe we just need a better definition. Definitions can be tricky. But… if definitions are that tricky, how are we ever going to define reality?

Scratch that. Let us not define reality. Let’s just live in it, whatever “it” may be. This concludes the first episode of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget – I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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