this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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Don't be mean. I promise to do my best to judge that fairly.

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Gravity is all in your head (infosec.pub)
submitted 1 week ago by The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world to c/curatedtumblr@sh.itjust.works
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[–] QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I don’t actually believe in airplanes, I think they’re just a symbol in our conscious interface, as Donald Hoffman argues. But I think airplanes are connected to some rule of our psychology that allows us to fly under certain conditions. And to our limited point of view, that rule looks a lot like an airplane.

Couldn't you test this by having someone attempt to use a fake radio believing it's real?

I mean if that were true, wouldn't ANY air plane work? Wouldn't it be impossible to improve on the design of airplanes if it's all belief?

[–] Grail@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

It's not all belief, and I'm not saying it's all belief. I'm saying the laws of physics that appear to us through our senses are actually laws of psychology. But they are still laws. I believe we have a better chance of understanding them and building technology to overcome them if we use both physics and psychology at once on the problem. But deception and self-delusion are not especially powerful psychological techniques, so I would not expect them to work very well in this situation.