/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11266147
Only correct answer based on evidence is “I don’t know”

>>11266147
>the Fermi Paradox
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

>>11266147
Fermi paradox is gay, it has too many axioms.
Dark forest theory is more plausible

>>11266281

>Dark forest theory is more plausible

Well that has one hell of an axiom..

There's no paradox. Any aliens advanced enough to traverse the galaxy would also have sufficient computing power to create VR paradises. Why spend a bunch of resources meeting us idiots on earth when you could instead fuck your alien waifu inside your personal supercomputer?

We should exterminatus every civilization we encounter as fast as possible.

>>11266298
>would also have sufficient computing power to create VR paradises.
>Why spend a bunch of resources meeting us idiots on earth

If they had the computing power to create VR paradises, it would take like 1% of their energy to meet us though (either through increasing FTL travel or through black holes etc...).

Besides that, they wouldn't necessarily need to MEET us. We should be able to see signs of life in the cosmos. Considering that billions of years have occured prior to the existence of humans, other life forms have surely have had enough time to get to a point of discovering electricity and physics and ultimately have reached the technological singularity? Where are the other Von Neumann probes? Dyson spheres? The fact we don't see anything at all suggests its unlikely that other life forms exists IMO. Purely because billions of years have occured before us.

My basic premise is this, feel free to poke holes in it:

>universe has been around for billions of years
>plenty of time to reach the singularity and do whatever the fuck you want in the cosmos, including VN probes, colonisation of other planets etc...
>we humans haven't seen one single thing to indicate alternative life
>thus alternative life has never existed and currently does not exist.

>>11266350
*through wormholes

>>11266147
Fuck no /b/ro we got each other.

Why would aliens visit a civilisation as dumb as us

>>11266298
>>11266571
Like humans, a handful of them are interested in studying earth related phenomena. Apparently they haven't evolved feelings like we have. At least not the same ones. So they try to figure out how we work.Tag us like we tag birds. Test our minds through telepathy (However it works. Nanomachines?).
Nor do they have our kind of digestive systems. Which may be the explanation for "cattle mutilations". UFO's have been seen around areas with fulgurite. So they have their areas of interest. Although they are so extremely technologically advanced compared to us they have no interest in actually talking to us at all, except to say you better take care of this earth so we can study your lifeforms in the years to come. Only thing that makes them interfere is nukes, which obviously are quite harmful to the environment.

>>11266269
Yes, it is

>>11266147
I think 99% of people they can't imagine how big Milky way really is, not even considering the universe. The biggest problem we face and maybe ayy lmaos face it, is speed, even if you have a ship who goes with 99.99% speed of light, to go from one side to another of this galaxy, will take you more than 100.000 years.
So stop wasting your time looking for them, first we need to conquer this solar system and have some decent space ships.

>>11267195
Based on ufo reports there's a possibility we haven't the slightest idea how the universe works. Going in and out of existence. Defying gravity without propultion. I mean even using our current theories we can bypass the speed of light by bending spacetime.

>>11266281
No, it's idiotic.
The first civilization capable of interstellar travel would have sterilized all the other worlds, ours included.
I can see why it would work for a book though.

>>11266571
Because they are dumb too.
That's the universe we live in.

>>11267226
>Based on ufo reports
>Going in and out of existence. Defying gravity without propultion.
All this indicates is that their is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel in the midst of all this quantum mechanics faggotshit

>>11266147
The mainstream idea of "space", or the "universe", is nothing more than a metaphysical religion of materialism.

This is nothing new, we have been making stories up about what the lights in the sky are since we were able to observe them. There's a reason the "planets" (whatever they may be) still have the names of ancient deities.

The current dogmatic belief about "the universe" attempts to protect itself under the guise of being "science". The problem is, there is no true science involved, due to its assumptive observations of light which are modelled (twisted) using mathematics to fit in a materialistic metaphysical "model" that has no bearing on physical reality. It also tries to protect itself with fake images and videos which are easily digestible to the unquestioning public. Only in modern times has it been possible for a materialistic religion to spread its propaganda in such a way.

What's also amusing is that the proponents of the mainstream materialistic view of the "universe", are the same people who denigrate those who are against space travel, because in their view, those who are against space travel are materialistic consumers who are dead inside and don't wish to further the advancement of the human race. What they don't understand is that it is their very own materialistic model of the "universe" that causes the mindless capitalistic consumerism of most people in the first place. The entire point of the fake materialist religion model of reality is to drive materialistic consumerism.

>>11267723
Yeah, current quantum mechanics is an explanation in the most retarded way while still managing to get the right answer.

But let's take quantum entanglement, which Albert Einstein himself thought was bullshit. But apparently is a real thing. Then we already have proof the world doesn't work in ways we thought. This opens up a lot of possibilities, when we start unraveling the reason that stuff like this happens we can take advantage of it and build things that would defy our current understanding of physics.

Another very fascinating area of physics is exotic states of matter. Definitely a lot of potential use cases.

>>11266147
It's more likely that most solutions to the Drake Equation are just overly optimistic and the occurrence of intelligence is best conveyed as a fraction of galaxies in which intelligent life emerges rather than planets. I can make peace with the idea that we are alone in our galaxy, or one of perhaps two or three intelligent civilizations and likely the most overall advanced of them.

>>11267756
What is your view on the universe that goes against materialism then?

>>11267833
Well I have no idea what the lights in the sky actually are - but there's nothing about them that makes me doubt that they're here for a reason (for us).

In the current materialistic model of reality, the sun and moon are completely different in their size and distance to us, despite appearing very similar in size to us on earth, and their motions (or orbits) are based on complete, unconscious chance that produce consistent eclipses to us on earth. There's nothing special about them at all, and they're littered all throughout the unconscious, meaningless universe.

In my view, it's extremely obvious that the sun and moon have a symbiotic relationship with each other. Their very similar size to each other is NOT a coincidence, their motions around us is NOT a coincidence, their very obvious effects upon the earth is NOT a coincidence. They're here for us, they're not here randomly.

In terms of the stars, they clearly have a symbiotic relationship with the (electro-?)magnetic field/poles of the earth. They are not unimaginably far distances away from us, they are part of a local system.

>>11266571
Solid slave labor force.

>>11266147
>Are we truly alone in the cosmos?
You best hope we are. Otherwise you'll experience another Shoah. EIther them, or us.

>>11267195
>I think 99% of people they can't imagine how big Milky way really is, not even considering the universe

this. the claim that there's no life in the universe, or even the milky way, is absurd. Even if abiogenesis is extremely unlikely, it must've happened on at least one of the trillions worlds.

that being said, without proof the answer is 'probably, but we don't know'

>>11267064
>telepathy

Any civilization advanced to explore the galaxy in a timely fashion would be able to read human minds with ease. After they've studied our brains ofc.

>>11266147
Fermi Paradox is retarded because the value of zero parts of the Drake equation are known, so there is basically no actual Fermi paradox in existence and really couldn’t be for thousands of years.

>>11266350
>Where are the other Von Neumann probes?

Why do you expect to be able to notice them even if they flew right through the solar system?

> Dyson spheres?

Conjectural structures with no basis in any reality.

> The fact we don't see anything at all

We do see things, they’re just not 100% definitely aliens as far as we know.

>>11267918
>value of zero parts of the Drake equation are known

Ever heard of estimates, moron? We don't need to know the values exactly.

>>11267139
>Yes, it is

No, it isn’t. This is a logical fallacy,


:)

>>11267897
>Well I have no idea what the lights in the sky actually are

Ignore schizoposters, guys.

>>11267925
>Ever heard of estimates, moron?

Any estimates we make are 100% baseless conjecture with zero evidence. All we know is that the values aren’t zero because we exist. Nothing more.

>We don't need to know the values exactly.

We know nothing about the values other than that they are not zero.

>>11267927
>Ignore schizoposters, guys.
Erm, excuse me. Schizophrenics are the ones who make up what they believe the lights in the sky are, and other schizos believe it, like you. I'm the one who claims not to know what they are, which is the opposite of schizophrenia.

>>11266147
a) we haven't researched shit yet, but we've probably already found a dyson sphere, very far away.
b) we almost don't use radio frequencies anymore
c) there are reasons not to show your presence to the whole wild world

>>11267948
>we've probably already found a dyson sphere

proofs

>>11267949
>probably
maybe not: https://www.space.com/alien-megastructure-mysteriously-dimming-stars.html

They probably don't use dyson spheres. They could just grab sun material using their barely even physical craft. Run some sort of highly efficient reactor, fusion or better. Cloak everything. It wouldn't be detectable. Invisibility is one of those really obvious simple things to do not too far off for us even.

>>11267924
The point wasn't specifically about Dyson spheres/VN probes. It was that any alien life form that reaches the singularity (and they have had billions of years to do so), would colonise and manipulate the entire universe at will.

>We do see things, they’re just not 100% definitely aliens as far as we know.

No we don't. Source?

And even if we did and we weren't 100% sure, that's not good enough. We should be able to 100% see the universe buzzing with life everywhere. We don't see anything at all.

>>11267918
On the contrary, that's exactly what any paradox is all about.
If those values were all high enough aliens should be already here, they are not, hence at least one of those values is very low.

>>11268717
Paradox means that we're seemingly forced to choose between possibilities to believe in that all seem impossible or at least highly implausible. What's the paradox here?

>>11266147
Being on the edge of the Laniakea Cluster and inside the KBC void doesn’t as information from other civs might not be fast enough to reach us

Maybe the other species aren't as advanced as we always imagine them to be. Humans are going to be the ones colonizing other planets.

>>11267678
>The first civilization capable of interstellar travel would have sterilized all the other worlds, ours included.
That's quite a supposition. Care to back up why?

>>11267723
Well, current theories and hypotheses go into a direction that there are many more physical dimension to the world than those that we are able to perceive.

>>11268915
Dark forest theory

>All life desires to stay alive.
>There is no way to know if other lifeforms can or will destroy you if given a chance.
>Lacking assurances, the safest option for any species is to annihilate other life forms before they have a chance to do the same.

>>11268915
It was an answer to the plausibility of the "dark forest" theory.
Which is everybody stay silent or other aliens are going to spot you and destroy your world, because reasons.
If they are that paranoid and capable of going anywhere in the galaxy why wait, just explore all the galaxy and kill everyone.
If you're the first civilization you can pull that off easily.

>>11266156
/thread

>>11267139
>I don't have any orange juice in my refrigerator
>therefore, no orange juice exists in the entire universe

>>11268773
You may want to study logics a little more.

>>11268985
Nice vague condescending comment instead of answering the question or showing where I'm wrong or anything illuminating whatsoever.

>>11268979
We haven't killed all other life on the planet because it ensures our own survival. Maybe we are part of the universe's ecosystem.

>>11268982
>because reasons
Are any ever stated? Because let's say they are out there right now. We are so far behind them technologically, that we couldn't legitimately ever be a threat to them.

>>11269002
>We haven't killed all other life on the planet because it ensures our own survival. Maybe we are part of the universe's ecosystem.

Many theorise that we killed the Neanderthals off and drove them to extinction. Regardless, nothing on this planet threatens human survival.

>>11266147
How2discover alien life?

How well do we know our own planet? Antarctica was there for millions of years before humans discovered it in the 19th century.

How well do we know our solar system? The gas giants have dozens of satellites we didn't know about until the last 40 or so years.

>>11269002
aliens killing everyone ever only works if youre a mentally unstable moron who at the same time somehow is superintelligent. such a brilliant theory

>>11266147
Do they provide anything new at all? Anything useful? Nope. Meaningless thread, meaningless article.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqEmYU8Y_rI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEt941k2GAg

I don't remember which of their videos talks about it but the key point is that there are at least 10 major factors for development of life and most of those factors are completely unknown to us so we can only guess. We need much better technology - or proof of alien life - to answer the Fermi paradox.

>>11266147
What if aliens are everywhere but have a policy that they make themselves invisible to retards like us?

The problem is time AND space. Billions of years and light years, a lot of intelligent races could have come and gone, never to meet.

>>11269158
That is my point. Sterilization seems like a dumb idea

>>11269638
But we have proof. Disregarding the majority of lying pieces of shit. There are countless observations, abductions etc that are credible with multiple witnesses, some with hundreds of people. Physical evidence. But this is being ignored by almost everyone. Imagine being this fooled by early efforts to ridicule the whole thing. We should really investigate the credible cases to find out if it's bullshit or real, get some conclusive evidence. I'm tired of this amateur shit. Get your shit together people.

>>11266269
>The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

But it is. It is not proof positive of absence, but it certainly points towards absence as being likely.

>>11266298
VR is not real no matter how perfect it is. If the alines are at least a tiny bit like us, they will want to do things for real, too.

Maybe intelligent life is extremely rare. Other than that, vast majority of so called solutions to Fermi Paradox do not hold up upon further scrutiny.

>>11269679
>we have proof
>Physical evidence
Where? People saying things does not make it true. Normal people learn this at an age around 6.

>>11269702
>Where?
That you don't know proves the success of the efforts to hide it.

>People saying things does not make it true.
Really you don't say. People are lying pieces of shit, poisoning the well of data.

Make more effort into your comments and then maybe I'll do too.

>>11268979
I like that theory, but it fell apart if you are a type 2 or 3 civilization, at that point you will have something FTL travel, so you will no need to kill entire species for a Planet/Solar system, only if they want to kill you, but that's a galactic warfare, something we cannot even imagine, that scale.

>>11269679
There are countless observations of Elvis Presley being still alive for that matter.

>>11270026
Credible ones? Source.

>>11269679
>credible cases
Name one.

>>11268717
>On the contrary, that's exactly what any paradox is all about.

There’s no paradox.

> If those values were all high enough aliens should be already here, they are not

You don’t know that.

>>11268423
>It was that any alien life form that reaches the singularity (and they have had billions of years to do so), would colonise and manipulate the entire universe at will.

That’s an assumption that literal magic technology is possible.

> No we don't.

Yes we do. Wow! signal. The million and a half UFO sightings.

> We should be able to 100% see the universe buzzing with life everywhere.

Nope. An interstellar empire, for which there is no reason to create because of how plentiful resources are in even one solar system, would be impossible to detect even a hundred light years away.

>>11270053
Come back and discuss when you've done your research, fucking nigger.

>>11270063
>That’s an assumption that literal magic technology is possible.

Reaching the singularity will be almost like magic though. It’s possible FTL travel can happen, that wormholes could be created, that energy will be plentiful, heck some people think far enough we’ll actually be able to create alternative universes.

The wow sign is interesting but has never been verified 100% and most UFO sightings are by Schizos.

Do you think that not a single advanced species in the past billion years would’ve wanted to create an interstellar empire? And you contradict yourself - by extension and interstellar empire is an empire across the entire universe. It should be possible to detect SOMETHING

>>11269077
>before humans discovered it in the 19th century.
you are quite probably very wrong about this. humans were sailing around circumnavigating the globe long before the 19th century

>>11269695
>VR is not real no matter how perfect it is.

The only difference between VR and what you think as "real reality" is that VR is designed by intelligent beings. How does it make VR less real? The only reason we think VR as "not real" because our virtual realities have so far been just imitations of something else that can be easily recognized as such.

>>11270120
Interstellar means travel across stars not the whole universe. It seems you base your opinions about what motivates alien species in things that humans have done in history, instead of thinking about it objectively. Why would you even begin to think that you can understand anyhting about what motivates an alien life form.

And if you look at the ways we use to discover planets for example you would understand why it would be so hard to detect anything alien made.

>>11267948
the dyson sphere thing has already been disproven I believe. There's an article out there somewhere but I didn't save the link.

>>11268979
>>11269002
also
>The time it takes for communication between two civilizations is so long that one could have completely changed or advanced beyond you if ftl is not possible, so the safest option is to kill off others as soon as you can detect them
The earth is small enough where you don't see this happening

>>11270279
>instead of thinking about it objectively.

You can’t really think objectively. Only subjects think.

>>11270349
a solid sphere strawman version of it has been disproved. to distinguish from it often the term "dyson swarm" is used instead

>>11266147
It is a star wars universe. We will all get to the same level of technology at about the same time given some tolerance. This could be done in a couple of ways, one of which is that a superior race claims dominance and ends up sharing some level of technology through whatever means of trade. Another way is a species sharing it with others. Another way is through an amazingly rare instance of spontaneous awareness of some driving principle for a technology.
What is the chances of an alien species being in a bubble that is less than a thousand years in length? I honestly can't imagine what our world is going to look like in that time.

>>11268979
>the safest option for any species is to annihilate other life forms
trying to kill everyone is the safest option. nice. aren't you a master of game theory. go out and attempt that and see what happens you absolute mong

>no dyson spheres
>no fleet of space ships
>no self replicating drones
>no signs of alien activity at all
We might be the first, universe is still pretty young compared to how long the stars are going to last.

>>11270279
>It seems you base your opinions about what motivates alien species in things that humans have done in history, instead of thinking about it objectively. Why would you even begin to think that you can understand anyhting about what motivates an alien life form.

Do you have an 'objective way' to analyse the motivations of alien life form? There is no other way to do so other than to use our own human experiences. That's like saying our physics is not objective because we've only experimented with it in our own galaxy and not others.

Maybe you're right - aliens could be shy and never want to broadcast their own existence. But it's unlikely that in the past billion years, not a single alien civilisation that has reached the singularity did not want to do so. If the Universe existed for 100 years, fair enough. But billions of years? Not one

>And if you look at the ways we use to discover planets for example you would understand why it would be so hard to detect anything alien made.

I don't actually disagree, our methods are crude. I just argue that in the past billions of years, there should be millions if not billions of alien civilisations that have reached the singularity and gone out to explore the universe just as we're trying to do. And before people shit on humans, we've been around for barely 0.000001 second in the entirety of the cosmos.

>>11266317

That kind of bold thinking will earn you a high ranking position in Trump's Space Force!

>>11267900
Anon...
Why would an Alien civilization go to a distant world to acquire an organic slave underclass when you could just build robotic drones that:
> Require a fraction of the resources for production and upkeep
> Can be easily recycled or replaced when they break down
> Are unfaltering loyal and simple to manage and coordinate
> Can perform with a substantially greater level of efficiency and reliability than any organic slave could ever hope to manage?

They're hiding.

>>11268984
>evidence = proof

>>11267926
>the absence of evidence of WMDs in Iraq is not evidence of their absence
That's a logical fallacy.

>>11266269
There is evidence
Look up
You will see no aliens
That is evidence

>>11271896
>You will see no aliens
But that's wrong you fucking retard.

>>11266156
STAYVEN

Intelligence might be very rare, just look at Earth, imagine if all humans were sub-saharan blacks, sure they're intelligent but not enough to produce technology and build sophisticated societies, just think that without mixing with Neanderthal Euros and Asians wouldn't exist as we are today, now you're going to say but look at how many galaxies there are out there, and how many have solar systems capable of having a planet like Earth? With a moon? A big gas planet that shields the planet from asteroids? Many, many things to take in account, they might be out there but most civilizations are probably on primitive sub-saharan levels.

Negative energy doesn't exist if it did you could travel to the past as well, sending out probes would negate the problem of long distances and time but they might get damaged from radiation and how would they fix the issues in space? Everything in this universe is made so that civilizations don't get in contact with one another, only exception would be if Mars was also populated, shame it isn't.

>>11272076
You have managed to be racist at a galactic level.
That's no small feat for a /pol/tard

>>11271995
Well do post the evidence in this thread, I would like to discuss it considering I also (want) to believe in aliens. Particularly the tic-tac visitors.

>>11272169
He’s right but assumes to much, most animal life in the universe is probably no more sophisticated than a hydra or trilobite. the few species that achieve some form of land dominance probably either kill themselves with technological growth or are nigger tier and never escape the paleolithic level of development.

>>11272169
I didn't make them that way, sorry if reality is too much for you.

>>11272187
>the few species that achieve some form of land dominance probably either kill themselves with technological growth
>or are nigger tier and never escape the paleolithic level of development.
God damnit why the fuk do niggas think they can foresee how life develops elsewhere to such a retarded degree?

>>11272198
Shut the fuck up with your undeserved arrogance.

>>11272187
Just think if the asteroid didn't hit the planet and killed the dinossauros giving way for mammals dominance? The odds are not in favor of intelligence species with a consciousness.

>>11272210
Stop posting that jpg. The show sucks ass now.

>>11272216
You suck ass now.

>>11270889
It took the universe 14 billion years to make us.
Perhaps we are the early birds.

>>11272225

>>11272171
Same, I want to believe. But I'm still gonna be 100% objective because the truth is the only thing that matters.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8LT4USyezc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBiMzxdc09o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R9OhlM-D4Q

I've seen one of these weird glowing transparent things myself. It's like they aren't really physical. Could be some kind of cloaking tech though maybe.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0piXjywqrv8
One witness said it came right up to him at night and it was dead silent.

These drone videos are almost guaranteed real. There are fucktons of them with almost no views.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe-os6llmig
If you want to see those things yourself I recommend getting a drone or building your own. The more unique it is and better flight characteristics it has the more likely they are to notice you probably. Those orbs are probably surveillance drones.

There is so much evidence if you just bother to look for it.

Possible tic toc caught on tape:
https://youtu.be/3p0jWJ4jF54?t=1228
i don't trust this video 100% but it's almost too good to be fake.

>>11272284
*tic tac

>>11272284
For the last one, the size and dimensions seem to roughly match up from what the pilots who saw the original tic-tac stated. Though I'd expect the tic-tac to be going a bit faster.

I'd like to see what people claim it to be. It can't be a balloon it is going too fast, can't be jet exhaust either since this isn't infrared footage.

>>11272284
>But I'm still gonna be 100% objective

This is impossible. You are ironically delusional if you think anyone can be “100% objective”.

>>11272482
Meaning what? I'm obviously saying 100% objective as far as my abilities go. Not that I'm the perfect organism who is 100% objective relative to the truth of the universe.

>>11268717
>If those values were all high enough aliens should be already here
Not really. There are places so far away that the first light of the universe still hasn't reached us. It's really unfair to expect that we should be being visited by ayy lmaos all the time; for all we know the opposite side of the universe could be overpopulated with all sorts of creatures like some sort of space China, but they couldn't possibly have arrived even if they were spawned with light travel tech and started traveling right after the beginning. The universe is really big and you can't understand it because you're a brainlet.

>>11266147

Aliens don't exist. It's the God delusion for people who don't want to believe in God.

bump

>>11266147
>Are we truly alone in the cosmos?
Yes, we are the only technologically advanced species in the observable universe, BUT that does not mean we are the only intelligent species, only that no other species is using their intelligence for technological advancement.

We KNOW we are unique because we see stars in the sky and no technologically advanced species would waste all this light energy.

>>11272589
but anon, we are easily considered aliens

>>11272895
>Yes, we are the only technologically advanced species in the observable universe, BUT that does not mean we are the only intelligent species, only that no other species is using their intelligence for technological advancement.
How the fuck do you people make such astronomically retarded statements?

>>11272903
A dolphin-like species could evolve a very high intelligence, but would probably NEVER invent a way to create and control fire and creating and controlling fire is the ROOT of ALL technology.

>>11272915
>How the fuck do you people make such astronomically retarded statements?

>>11272919

Are you OK retard?

>>11272927

>>11272932

>>11272938

>>11266298
even if 99.9% of civilizations just turn into VR hedonists, it only takes ONE civilization to send out a von Neumann probe and fill the entire galaxy relatively quickly

>>11272938
>>11272939
>>11272932
>>11272927
great posts retards

>>11272940
Kinda like men in this world. 99% s o y b o y s but you do get the odd Trump who doesn't give a fuck

>>11270273
>The only difference between VR and what you think as "real reality" is that VR is designed by intelligent beings

No, the difference is that VR is not real, just virtual, and reality is real. No matter how perfect your simulation is, this will always remain.

>>11270754
Us being the first seems to be the most straightfoward conclusion. Otherwise what is the Great Filter that prevented ALL others from populating the cosmos?

>>11272076
Intelligence may also not be adaptive. Maybe almost all civilizations that evolve intelligence also evolve pathological altruism and suffer from an Idiocracy scenario.

>>11272895
>We KNOW we are unique because we see stars in the sky and no technologically advanced species would waste all this light energy.

Well said.

>>11273840
Obviously virtual reality is in some sense a subset of reality, otherwise it wouldn't exist at all. In what other sense than I mentioned it's distinct from the rest of the reality?

>>11273840
To you, reality isn't real either. Everything you experience is only a product of your mind interpreting reality or virtual reality. There are no things such as color, sound, taste, smell, love or hate in the real world. You exist as a human. While other animals live in their own virtual mind reality.