In a manner of speaking, you could say that there are two realities existing side by side. First there's objective reality, which is the only reality that is really real. Then there's your perception of reality which only seems real to you. One could argue that, if it seems real, it's real, but one would be mistaken. What seems real to you might not seem real to another guy but, if both of you are reasonably cognizant, your two perceived realities should both be pretty close to the real reality, and to each other. If they weren't, then neither of you would get along very well in the world, or with each other. You both would just be stumbling around, unaware of real hazards that could injure or kill you.
There has been a lot of talk lately about our president elect's tendency to tell lies, not just lies, but outrageous lies. Then, when someone calls him on it, he just blows them off. I have known people like that in my life, and I always wondered if they even knew the difference between truth and falsehood. They must be reasonably aware of their surroundings in order to live successfully on this planet but, when it comes to talking about it, they don't seem to make a distinction between what's real and what isn't. It's all the same to them. I wonder now, of all the people who voted for Trump, how many of them didn't think of him as a liar, but as a regular guy like themselves and their friends. Since they don't make a distinction between truth and falsehood, they don't see why their president should either. It's no big deal to them.
Then there's those conscious computers that are coming. Will they know the difference between fact and fantasy? The computers we have now won't tell a lie unless they have been programmed to do so, and then they don't think of it as a lie. It's just data, and all data is the same to them. Will a self aware computer be so honest, or will it be capable of deluding others and even itself?
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