Alternate Realities

Two identical learners, observing different example input, or the same examples, but in different order, can form different categories and so judge newer/later input differently. (Machine Learning, T. Mitchell, McGraw Hill, 1997 and Asa H., R. Jones, Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., vol 109, \# 3/4, pg 159, 2006) It seems certain that each of us experiences a somewhat different reality, the question is just how widely these realities can vary one from another. Perhaps 4\% of people exhibit synesthesia, perceiving letters or numbers as colored, numbers and dates as having personalities or occupying locations in space. (Synesthesia, R. Cytowic, MIT Press, 2002) The Sapir- Whorf hypothesis claims that a speakers language influences his category structure and the way he thinks. (Language, thought, and reality, B. Whorf, MIT Press, 1956) Those who are skillful at mathematics may know an additional language and be able to think thoughts that the layman can not. The philosophers Plato and Descartes claimed to have had, at certain moments in their lives, a new view of the world, its basic constituents, and its rules which were totally different from our conventional view of reality. (Reflections on Kurt Godel, H. Wang, MIT Press, 1987, pg. 46) Fairly large scale differences are experienced by those who believe in (make use of) concepts like spirit(s), soul(s), god(s), life after death, platonism or Everett's many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (The Physics of Immortality, F. Tipler, Doubleday, 1994, pg. 176)