347: Chapter 347: Seeing the False, Dreaming of the Real

The sounds of discussion in the living room gradually subsided.

Jiang Zhe picked up his warm black tea and took a sip, his gaze sweeping across the audience.

In the corner, a hand was slowly raised.

It was Lin Chen, the young researcher from the Meteorological Bureau, twenty-eight years old, who had been sitting quietly in the back row and only spoke up at critical moments.

At this moment, he held his hand up with a serious expression, his face showing a rare earnestness.

"Mr. Jiang, I am not involved in neuroscience, nor psychology, and certainly not physics; but I have a question that has troubled me for many years—about dreams."

Jiang Zhe looked at him and nodded. "Dreams?"

Lin Chen lowered his hand and nodded. "Everyone dreams. Some dreams are forgotten upon waking, while others are remembered clearly."

"Sleepwalkers can walk, open doors, and even drive; yet, upon waking, they remember nothing at all."

"I have always wanted to know what dreams really are, why we dream, and why we forget them. As for sleepwalkers, who is actually controlling their bodies? Is it the self, or something else?"

After asking, he sat back down, feeling a bit awkward. "This question might not be very academic, especially since you said earlier that theories and concepts related to technological iteration would be covered later by Xiaoyu."

"But I feel that everyone here wants to know, and it might even provide some inspiration for the neuroscientists and medical experts present."

Several psychology, neurology, and medical professors in the living room lit up.

Jiang Zhe nodded silently.

"This question is quite formal, and in fact, very academic; it touches upon philosophy: reality and falsehood."

"I recall that the only philosopher present is Professor Wang, right?"

His gaze fell upon the slightly plump Professor Wang Shouren, who was sitting in the middle.

Professor Wang, who had been listening attentively, was suddenly called out. At that moment, he looked like a well-behaved child receiving praise. "Ah? Oh? Hmm? Yes, that's me."

As he finished speaking, Professor Qian, Professor Liu Guangyi, and Professor Chen Runzhi couldn't help but laugh.

They looked at him as if to say, "Why are you so reserved?"

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly.

"Continue."

"We humans cannot truly perceive the real world."

In the audience, Lin Chen nodded immediately and took over the conversation. "That's right; when we look at the world, it is through a window: our eyes."

"When light enters the retina, it is converted into electrical signals, then transmitted via the optic nerve to the occipital lobe of the brain, where the brain translates it into images. The world we see is a world compiled by the brain, not the world itself."

"I can say that we have never seen the true world; we could even say, 'The world is not like this!'"

A flash of approval crossed Jiang Zhe's eyes.

He did not rush to explain further, but instead picked up the teacup of black tea on the table and held it before his eyes.

"Professor Lin is correct; when we look at the world, it is through a window: our eyes."

He then set the teacup down and, with a serious gaze, pointed to his own eyelids.

"When light enters the retina, converts into electrical signals, passes through the optic nerve, and reaches the occipital lobe, the brain translates these signals into images. This directly proves that what we see is not the world, but a report—a report that is delayed, worn, and perhaps even directly tampered with by the brain mere fractions of a second prior."

"But there is a moment when we humans do not need this report."

He paused for a moment, scanning the room. "When you and I close our eyes!"

As he spoke, someone in the living room instinctively blinked.

"Close your eyes, the light is blocked, the retina no longer transmits signals, and the brain no longer translates images. The act of 'seeing' has stopped."

"But your consciousness and mine have not stopped."

"We can still 'see,' just not with our eyes, but with our consciousness."

"We see darkness, we see spots of light, we see some indescribable phantom images and shapes; we can even see our own memories, our own imagination, and places we have never been."

"This kind of seeing does not rely on the eyes at all."

Saying this, he held up one finger with a serious expression.

"The eyes are organs of the body; consciousness is not."

"The eyes can be deceived—optical illusions, hallucinations, light refraction, color blindness, nearsightedness, cataracts; but consciousness cannot."

"What consciousness sees has no refraction, no delay, and no loss whatsoever."

"Because consciousness does not rely on light."

No one in the living room made a sound; everyone stared fixedly at Jiang Zhe.

Jiang Zhe gave everyone a moment to react before continuing his explanation:

"So, the question arises: the world we see with our eyes is second-hand information translated by the brain."

"The world we see with our consciousness is entirely new information perceived directly!"

"Between the eyes and consciousness, which one is closer to reality?"

Lin Chen sat in the back row, his expression turning grave.

He worked in meteorology, and he knew this all too well—satellite cloud images are data inversions, not truly seeing the clouds.

Those who build meteorological models understand the difference between translation and direct perception better than anyone.

Jiang Zhe looked at him and said very softly, "Professor Lin, the moment you close your eyes is when you truly begin to see."

"And after you fall asleep, your eyes shut completely, and your bodily senses go silent; on the contrary, your consciousness finally becomes truly free."

"In that world, there is no light, no retina, no brain translation; if you see a mountain, you are standing before that mountain; if you see a stranger, that stranger is right in front of you."

"Consciousness does not need light, does not need time, does not need distance, and does not need spacetime scales."

"That is true seeing."

"Therefore, we have been saying it backward."

"It is not 'seeing is believing,' but rather, 'only when the eyes do not see, is it real.'"

He paused, his eyes narrowing suddenly as he scanned everyone present.

"So, the question is: is there a possibility that the world in our dreams is the real world?"

This question caused a string in the minds of Lin Chen and all the experts and professors to suddenly go taut.

The living room went quiet, and then, like a stone thrown into water, ripples quickly spread.

Ouyang Baili was the first to speak, his tone full of shock: "If the world in our dreams is the real one, then what are we when we are awake? Could it be that it is fake?"

Celestial Master Zhang had his eyes closed, but then slowly opened them. "Taoism speaks of 'who is the first to awaken from the great dream,' and 'Zhuang Zhou dreams of being a butterfly'; one does not know if it is Zhou dreaming of being a butterfly, or the butterfly dreaming of being Zhou."

Zheng Ming, sitting beside him, couldn't help but swallow hard. "If dreams are real and waking is false, then as we sit here right now, are we awake, or are we dreaming?"

Qian Mingyi took a deep breath. "There are many historical records of dream omens and cases of dream visitation; we have always dismissed them as superstition. If the world in dreams is indeed the real one—without the constraints of space-time, without the constraints of distance, without any physical rules—then perhaps these records are true?"

Clearly, Jiang Zhe's words had sparked intense discussion among everyone.

The dozen or so professors whispered among themselves, their expressions varied.

Some shook their heads, while others were lost in thought.

Only Professor Wang Shouren narrowed his eyes. He looked at Qian Mingyi, Professor Chen Runzhi, and Professor Liu Guangyi. "This statement has deep implications. The essence of consciousness is the aggregation of information, and all things in the world are information—the information of stones, the information of air, the information of soil—we have always been separated from the world by a layer of flesh."

"Young Jiang's statement directly provides a conclusion—'It is our physical bodies that contact the world, not our information.'"

"To rephrase it, it is: 'The information world where consciousness resides is the true cosmic world; the cosmic world where our physical bodies reside is not!!!'"

As he finished, not only were the other three left dumbfounded, but even Ouyang Baili, who was sitting nearby, couldn't help but nod repeatedly in agreement. "Well said!"

After a long time, the heated discussion in the room finally subsided.

Jiang Zhe's voice continued: "Why do we forget dreams?"

"The scientific explanation is: the brain switches modes between sleep and wakefulness, and dream memories are not encoded or stored. Thus, within a few minutes of waking, the dream is quickly forgotten."

"But this explanation describes how we forget, not why we forget."

His serious gaze swept across the room.

"And my conclusion is very simple: you haven't forgotten the dreams; you are not allowed to remember them."