Reality?
You got the wrong Terry - it's Terence McKenna you want.
The McKenna who invented the 2012 singularity myth?
No way. It's Pratchett all the way for me...
==Quotes mentioning Narrativium from Science of Discworld (I, II and III)==
Our minds make stories, and stories make our minds. Each culture's Make-a-Human kit is built from stories, and maintained by stories. A story can be a rule for living according to one's culture, a useful survival trick, a clue to the grandeur of the universe, or a mental hypothesis about what might happen if we pursue a particular course. Stories map out the phase space of existence (II: 327).
The characteristic feature of narrativium is that it makes stories hang together. The human mind loves a good dose of narrativium. (I:64)
A little narrativium goes a long way: the simpler the story, the better you understand it. Storytelling is the opposite of reductionism: 26 letters and some rules of grammar are no story at all. (I: 93)
Narrativium is powerful stuff. We have always had a drive to paint stories on to the Universe. When humans first looked at the stars, which are great flaming suns an unimaginable distance away, they saw in amongst them giant bulls, dragons, and local heroes. This human trait doesn't affect what the rules say -- not much, anyway -- but it does determine which rules we are willing to contemplate in the first place. Moreover, the rules of the universe have to be able to produce everything that we humans observe, which introduce a kind of narrative imperative into science, too. Humans think in stories.... (I: 11)
Humans add narrativium to their world. They insist on interpreting the universe as if it's telling a story. This leads them to focus on facts that fit the story, while ignoring those that don't. (I:233)
...humans seem to need to project a kind of interior decoration on to the universe, so that they spend much of the time in a world of their own making. We seem --at least at the moment-- to need these things. Concepts like gods, truth and the soul appear to exist only in so far as humans consider them to do so... But they work some magic for us. They add narrativium to our culture. They bring pain, hope despair, and comfort. They wind up our elastic. Good or bad, they've made us into people. (I: 166)
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I do respect Terrance McKenna as a philosopher, and he has some great things to say on 'reality' and Humanity.
and I do suffer from the belief that reality is 'knowable', ie, zen kensho, buddhist enlightenment.