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■ Reality Bubble│Jiya Tong │Translated by Jang Hoyeon│Cokun Books
Everything in the universe leads to one
The pollutants released
Livestock, reared in tight spaces,
Slaughtered in pain, such as in the gas chamber,
Put on the table with additives
I can’t see reality because of the system bubble
Accelerated capitalist possessive crisis
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How far can human vision be seen with the naked eye? If you can observe it from very close range, you can even detect a single photon flickering. As the distance increases, our eyes cannot see microscopic changes. However, on a clear night, a person with good vision detects a flickering of a candle at a distance of 2.76 km. If the object to be observed is large and bright enough, you can see even very far away. The moon is 385,000 km and the sun is 150 million km away, but it can be seen very well.
However, just because it is invisible to our eyes does not mean that bacteria or viruses do not exist. Although invisible to the naked eye, Uranus and Neptune are floating in the sky, and a huge number of stars emit light in the empty space. We always see, but we do not see it. Our eyes are born with blind spots, and the world is full of blind spots. Even if you mobilize the power of technology, it is the same. You can’t see the whole thing under a microscope, and you can’t see small things through a telescope. What we see is always only a very small part of reality.
According to’Reality Bubble’ (Cocoon Books), the reason we cannot see the world’as is’ is because of all the’bubbles’ around us. Bubbles that make what we don’t see as though we don’t have it or that we don’t want to see make us blind. If you become a’ba’ and are surrounded by a political bubble, the entire public opinion is invisible. Life becomes endless buying up when it accumulates in the bubble of possession, and throwing it away when it’s boring. All the bubbles eventually collapse, and when they burst, the whole reality crumbles and those in it become fools.
Author Ziya Tong is a popular Canadian science communicator. The bubbles surrounding us are punctured with a needle called cutting-edge science and bursting without any reason. Ultra-vision tools that augment the human eye to see what is invisible, such as a telescope or microscope, a roentgen camera that allows you to look inside the body, an infrared or ultraviolet camera that allows you to detect light outside the visible range, etc. By using, we can meet a completely different world. The author uses this to remove the bubbles that block our eyes in turn.
Above all, humans are’scale blind.’ We are mistaken for being at the center of the universe. Because of this, we recognize things that are similar to the human scale, but we do not know much about things that are too large or too small. For example, the agricultural method of eradicating insects, microorganisms, and bacteria using pesticides is the result of a human-centered perspective. However, they produce most of the earth’s oxygen, help plants pollinate, and activate the immune system of living things. It seems to be nothing to the human eye, but their extinction is human extinction. Agriculture that eliminates them is like attacking humans themselves.
Humans are also a’relationship alliance’. We think that humans are separate beings from the world around them. However, at the particle level, everything in the world is one. Our bodies also interact with the whole world. For example, drinking water has been in the sea for an average of 3,000 years, has stayed in the sky for about a week, and has been trapped under the ground or in glaciers for thousands of years or more. Once we were waves, clouds and icebergs. Humans are not alone. The radiation, exhaust gases and pollutants we have released will also return to our body someday. If you pollute the world, you pollute us.
Humans are not superior in the universe. Animals also know how to love each other or understand beauty as they perceive, feel, and communicate the world. Humans only respond to 0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum, but there are countless animals that can detect ultraviolet and infrared rays. Humans have reached the end of the universe and observed atoms with the power of science and technology, but this does not make humans superior to other animals. Humans are more vulnerable to social and historical blind spots.
Humans ignore life support systems. They don’t want to see how food is prepared, where energy comes from, and where waste goes. Most of the meat we eat is raised in tight spaces, slaughtered in pain, such as gas chambers, and put on the table with food additives to add flavor. The cropland is reduced to eat meat, and the sea is empty for feed. In addition, even though the emissions from the process of using fossil fuels are enough to cause climate change, they are not working on a solution. This is because accumulating greenhouse gases are invisible. Garbage is also hidden rather than disposed. It enters the ground, is released into the air, and is dumped in the sea. Every year, 5 to 13 million tons of plastic flow into the sea. By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. This world cannot be sustained, but no one is willing to see it.
The bubble of a system that humanity has inherited blocks us from seeing this reality. A temporal system that destroys the rhythm of nature while accelerating change unbearably for the entire planet, a spatial system that prevents people from enjoying even the basic benefits of nature such as bright sunlight and fresh air while flocking to a narrow space, and encouraging endless possessions to make the anxiety forget. However, the capitalist system, which induces greater terror, makes us unable to imagine outside the present world.
Humanity is currently committing suicide. If you can’t recognize reality as it is by breaking all kinds of natural and artificial bubbles, you can’t stop it. In Greek, the end is called’apocalypsis’. This means the veil of the original world is lifted. But before the catastrophe reveals the truth, the wise man confronts reality and prevents disaster. All scientific knowledge warns mankind. If we don’t wake up from the reality bubble, humanity will sooner or later be destroyed. 456 pages, 17,600 won.
Eunsoo Jang Publishing Critic