Richard Dawkins on Reality

In this talk notable evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins points out just how weird reality might be. He talks about how we have evolved to fit into a so-called “Middle World” where we can’t observe the very large or very small. The universe might just be a whole lot queerer than we suppose. Or, as Dawkins points out, than we even can suppose.

Are there things about the universe that will be for ever beyond our grasp but not beyond the grasp of some superior intelligence? Are there things about the universe that are un-graspable by any mind however superior?

Science has thought us against all intuition that apparently solid objects like crystals and rocks are almost entirely composed of empty space. The familiar analogy is that the nucleus of an atom is like a fly in the middle of a sports stadium and the next atom is in the next sports stadium.

Our brains have evolved to think that only solid, material things are real at all. Waves of electromagnetic fluctuations in a vacuum seem unreal. We find real matter comforting only because we have evolved to survive in middle world where matter is a useful fiction.