How to Burst the Reality Bubble

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What are we not seeing in the world around us?

We know that we are an intelligent species, but this often disguises how ignorant we can be. Our ways of perceiving and understanding the world are littered with blind spots, illusions, and delusions: we live in a ‘reality bubble’. These blind spots, whether biological or societal, have far-reaching consequences for how we treat the most important issues of our age, from income inequality to climate change.

Acclaimed science writer Ziya Tong explores some of humanity’s biggest misconceptions, breaking open the things we didn’t evolve to see, and, more dangerously, refuse to see. What we need at this critical juncture in human and ecological history, she tells us, is radical curiosity and a new way of seeing. Applying a scientific lens to the world around us, she says, fundamentally alters our view of reality, allowing us to question what surrounds us, what sustains us, and crucially, what controls us.