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There's been an awful lot of discussion of reality in our class for the past few weeks, and how everyone's reality may be the same or different. For many people, the idea that their reality may differ greatly from other people's seems deeply disturbing. Me, though...this idea doesn't terribly new or shocking at all.

Think about it. From the time you're very little, in elementary school, you learn simple facts about what animals can perceive and humans cannot. Dogs have a greater sensitivity to and awareness of smell than humans do. Bats can produce and perceive sounds at wavelengths far beyond the range of human hearing. So on and so forth. A little later, you start to learn about differences between humans that could alter perceptions. Some people are nearsighted or farsighted and can't perceive objects clearly without glasses. Some people use hearing aids. Some people use canes, or walkers, or wheelchairs. The word "reality" isn't used in any of these discussions of difference. But the implication is there for sure-people can sense different things from animals, and from each other-and these statements are easily accepted.

Now, enter neurobiology class. Here, the language gets a lot more complicated; we talk about the inner workings of the eye and brain, and the question of reality instead of simply saying "some people need glasses." Deep down, though, these are just the same ideas from elementary school; we've just dressed them up in more ambiguous language to reflect the fact that our reasoning skills are better now, and we use them as jumping-off points for discussion instead of treating them as absolute facts. I have no problem admitting that my reality is not likely to align eactly with anyone else's, because I've been hearing this lesson since I was young, albeit in different contexts.