Accelerate back to earth

Our concept of reality is determined by our senses. Through our eyes we perceive that the universe consists of objects that we can interact with, confirmed by our sense of touch registering pressure when we make contact with another object.

We have a construct of time because the input from our senses varies, and we can recollect the differences. As each combination of sensory input is never repeated precisely we determine that, as objects can move in relation to one another, so too does time “travel”, though only it would seem in one direction, and not in the same three dimensions we register physical objects moving in.

We recognise that there other forces at work based on observing how objects move in relation to one another. We deduce gravity as a force that attracts objects to one another. An object forced up and away from the planet will gradually slow in its ascent, and then accelerate back to earth.

We observe that some objects have a gravity like effect on a limited subset of other objects, and depending on alignment of the two objects, the vector of the force varies. One such effect we label magnetism.

We have the idea of light because in its presence our eyes can detect objects, but in its absence, while we see nothing, touch confirms the objects continue to persist in the darkness. Our eyes perceive of colour and brightness so we determine there are many variations of “light” and its strength fades with distance. We realise light is only emitted by some of the things we see, and bounces off other objects, being altered in colour and direction depending on what it hits.

We feel variations in pressure even when nothing appears to register with our eyes. From this our consciousness determines that our eyes do not register everything. For instance we can’t see air with our eyes, though we can feel it ebb and flow around us as in the shape of breezes and wind. Our ears register movement of air created by the vibrations of objects around us.

Our recollection of sensory input gives us the ability to gather data on the world about us, and we have an ability to develop theories to explain the myriad of interactions, and therefore predict future states.

In essence our mental model of the universe is shaped by the senses we have available to us, and confirmed by our ability to successfully predict changes.

But what if our senses do not register everything? There would, of course, be gaps and inconsistences in our mental predictive model.

With aids constructed to help us measure interactions with great accuracy and the use of a system we created called mathematics, we do find flaws in our concepts. Light sometimes behaves in a similar way to a wave on water, yet in other circumstances its interaction can better be described by considering it to be an object or particle. The fields of astrophysics, quantum physics, and particle physics are all rife with contradictions and effects we cannot explain adequately.

How else might our theories have evolved if we had different senses than sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste?