According to George Berkeley, things exist only if they have on observer. If there are no observers, nothing exists! George Berkeley was one of the three most famous eighteenth century British Empiricists He is best known for his motto, esse is percipi, to be is to be perceived. He was an idealist. According to him, everything that exists is either in a mind or depends for its existence upon a mind. He was an immaterialist as he believed that matter did not exist. He accepted the seemingly outrageous position that ordinary physical objects are composed solely of ideas, which are inherently mental. He wrote on vision, mathematics, Newtonian mechanics, economics, and medicine as well as philosophy. In his own time, his most often-read works concerned the medicinal value of tar-water. And in a curious sense, he was the first great American philosopher.

Why am I now dragging Berkeley into a blog? Because I am amazed how beautifully his theory describes the cyber world characters! We interact almost on a daily basis with so many persons here without knowing who or what they really are. We laugh with them, share a lot of our inner secrets with them, get angry with them, feel annoyed with them, feel lost without them! It defies all known precepts of human behaviour that we feel so strongly for people who we dot not know, may never meet and may as well be from outer space! In fact, in extreme cases, our feelings for these cyber world people are much stronger than what we feel for our close kith and kin. Yes, they exist in our mind and fit into the description of Berkeley. They are of a highly complex character as each one of us perceives them differently.

Let’s get back to Berkeley. Like most philosophers of the period, Berkeley seems to assume that touch provides immediate access to the world. Visual ideas of an object, on the other hand, vary with one’s distance from the object. As one approaches a tower one judges to be about a mile away, “the appearance alters, and from being obscure, small, and faint, grows clear, large, and vigorous”. The tower is taken to be of a determinate size and shape, but the visual appearance continually changes. How can that be? Berkeley claims that visual ideas are merely signs of tactile ideas. There is no resemblance between visual and tactile ideas. Their relationship is like that between words and their meanings. If one hears a noun, one thinks of an object it denotes. Similarly, if one sees an object, one thinks of a corresponding idea of touch, which Berkeley deems the secondary (mediate) object of sight. In both cases, there are no necessary connections between the ideas. The associative connection is based on experience.
.

Experience is the key word here. The cyber world people are seen by us through the window through which they present themselves. We know of them only as they project themselves. Barring a few, everyone here is a delightful character and I am often left wondering if everyone is only as close to his projected image, how jolly a place this world will be! Characters who keep fighting with everyone around them in their real life are so funny, realistic, suave and so light hearted in the cyber world. People who fight with everyone in the chat rooms are in real life so soft spoken who will not say boo to a lamb! In almost all cases, the cyber world has come to be regarded as a place where it is so easy to lose your identity and thereby becomes an ideal world where you can live a life of your own choice particularly when the real life is at great variance with the desired one. It is a world where you can make people believe that you are what you make yourself appear to be which in real life is so damn difficult. It is a world where perception is the name of the game

Hi Sri,

I've heard of Berkeley and his ideas. The most popular was that if
a tree falls in a forest with no one to hear it, is there a sound?
I suggest this, if a brick fell off a building and hit you on the
head and no one was there to see it, would it still hurt? LOL
but it is an example of idealist thinking, which oversimplifies
the idea but illustrates the gap in our understanding
the world around us.

Here is another- exactly what is it that we communicate
over the internet that allows someone to know you?
Is it merely a construct like the scenery you see
while reading a well written novel? We are dealing
with the concepts of mind vs reality/actuality.

I will tell you this, your picture of me may be different
than if you were to come and visit in person, however,
we would talk about the same things, and if you were
never to see my picture, you would know me by
the way I talk.

I am a WYSIWYG person, I never put on a face either
in person or on the internet. While you may think
of me differently than in person, it is a product of
your own mind. In that, I would say the analogy
is correct. We are virtual people.

If you were to just take my writing, my style is
always the same, but in replying to posts you
may think that there were several people
writing it. It is because of the believeability
of it, and not necessarily your concept.

In person, I am soft spoken, almost never get
upset, and I can speak on virtually any subject
with experiential knowledge. I am slightly detatched
kind, and I use no profanities. I find humor in the
english language, but I don't use it in text often
unless it is to prove a point. I go out of my way
to help people. I am not shy, but I spend a
good part of my day by myself.

Now, does that describe the person you had
in mind for me? We could try an experiment
and you could speak to me on the phone
to see if it gives you a better picture of
the person behind the words.

This is a good discussion Sri. Thank you
for the ideas.

Robert

Thank you Sri!

Wow!  What a terrific topic, and you are so right to be comparing Berkley's writing with the cyber world.  It is surely true.  I definitely believe that everything exists in the mind..........and one level or vibration or another.

When I first got introduced to the Internet (which was a story in itself as I used to have my friends fax me emails...........), anyway....... I could immediately FEEL energy through certain emails.  Those emails always turned out to be from someone I did not personally know.  They were ALL positive and they are still POSITIVE to this day.  But..........I also set out to PROVE that the Internet was a positive place after all of the negativity and naysayers predictions of doom. 

So.........did my thoughts and positive expectations create my reality?  I certainly think so!

Another thing that really made me lead with positive expectations is that people's looks, color, creed,  culture, etc. has NOTHING to do with the value of business, friendship, or education they can give to others.   My mind is not going to create an image based on the fact that Johnny H or Julie T has an earing in his/her nose.........because I cannot see it.  All I can do is feel his/her heart and their intentions (good or bad).  Sometimes the feeling is.......buyer beware & delete!

Like you say, "It is a world where you can make people believe that you are what you make yourself appear to be which in real life is so d*mn difficult. It is a world where perception is the name of the game."

Thanks again for an awesome topic!

Bless you,  Jill