Irrational Reality Theory

The claim that reality includes fundamentally irrational elements—not just non-logical but counter-rational, resistant to reason, perhaps even absurd. Irrational Reality Theory draws on existentialist and absurdist traditions: reality is not just indifferent to human concerns but actively absurd in its structure. Camus's absurd—the collision between human demand for meaning and reality's silent meaninglessness—is a version of this. Reality isn't just non-rational; it's irrational in the sense of frustrating reason, mocking it, exceeding it.

Irrational Reality Theory "You seek meaning; reality offers none. You seek justice; reality distributes suffering randomly. Irrational Reality Theory says: that's not accident—that's structure. Reality is irrational in the sense that it continually frustrates the very reason we use to understand it. The absurd isn't a mistake; it's the truth."

by Dumu The Void March 1, 2026

Counter-reality

The construction of alternative realities that are presented as if they were true—not hypotheticals but counterfactuals masquerading as facts. Counter-reality is what happens when "what if" becomes "what is" in someone's mind, when imagined alternatives are treated as actual realities. In online political debates, counter-reality is epidemic: people argue about events that never happened as if they did, about policies that were never implemented as if they were, about histories that never occurred as if they were fact. Counter-reality is the terrain of conspiracy theories, of historical revisionism, of every claim that substitutes imagination for evidence.

Example: "He argued passionately about the consequences of a policy that had never been implemented, citing 'facts' that existed only in his mind. Counter-reality had replaced reality: he was debating something that never happened, using evidence that never existed. There was no way to argue with him because he wasn't arguing about the world—he was arguing about a world he'd invented."

by Abzugal March 7, 2026

Neutral Reality Bias

A cognitive and meta-bias where an individual believes that the reality they inhabit—their society, online spaces, social media platforms, communities, or sources of information—is neutral, objective, and free from bias, when in fact it is shaped by specific interests, power structures, and cultural assumptions. Neutral Reality Bias is the illusion that your environment is simply "the way things are," not a constructed space with its own rules, biases, and agendas. On social media, it's believing your feed shows you "what's happening" rather than what algorithms choose to show you. In science communication, it's trusting that popular sources are simply reporting "the facts" rather than selecting and framing information. In society, it's assuming that dominant cultural norms are just "common sense" rather than particular ways of organizing life. Neutral Reality Bias makes the constructed appear natural, the biased appear neutral, the partial appear complete. It's the bias that protects other biases from examination—if your reality is neutral, you never have to question it.

Example: "He thought his Twitter feed was just 'what was happening'—neutral, objective, real. Neutral Reality Bias blinded him to the algorithm's role: selecting for outrage, amplifying conflict, shaping his perception. When she pointed out that his 'reality' was constructed, he dismissed her as biased. His reality was neutral; hers was political. The bias was invisible to him, which is how it worked."

by Dumu The Void March 8, 2026

Cognitive Realism

The philosophical position that our cognitive and nervous systems fundamentally determine how we see, perceive, and understand reality. Cognitive Realism argues that there is no direct, unmediated access to reality—everything we experience is processed through the structures of human cognition. Our brains evolved to navigate a specific environment, not to perceive reality as it is in itself. Colors aren't "out there"; they're how our brains interpret wavelengths. Time isn't flowing; that's how our consciousness processes sequence. Cognitive Realism doesn't deny that reality exists; it insists that our access to it is always mediated, always interpreted, always shaped by the peculiarities of human cognition. It's the foundation of neuroscience-informed epistemology, the recognition that the mind is not a window but a lens—and lenses distort as much as they clarify.

Example: "He used to think he saw the world as it really was. Cognitive Realism showed him otherwise: his brain was interpreting, constructing, shaping. The redness of the rose wasn't in the rose; it was in his nervous system. Reality was real, but his experience of it was his—not the world's, but his brain's."

by Abzugal March 9, 2026

Anti-realism of the Laws of Physics

A philosophical position holding that the laws of physics are not descriptions of an independent reality but rather human constructions—useful tools for prediction, elegant summaries of regularities, or convenient fictions that help us navigate experience. Anti-realism about physical laws asserts that electrons, forces, and fields are concepts, not things; that equations describe our experience, not reality-in-itself; that scientific success doesn't require truth, just empirical adequacy. This position draws on the history of theory change (past theories were "true" but abandoned), underdetermination (multiple theories fit the same data), and the recognition that observation is theory-laden. Anti-realism doesn't deny that science works; it just denies that working proves correspondence to an independent reality. The laws are our maps, not the territory.

Anti-realism of the Laws of Physics Example: "Her anti-realism of physical laws meant she saw quantum mechanics as a brilliant predictive tool, not a description of reality-as-it-is. When the math worked, she celebrated the tool, not insight into the noumenal world. The map is useful; the territory remains unknown."

by Dumu The Void March 19, 2026

Sight reading

When a band performs a piece of music they've seen for the first time and have to listen to each other and adjust on the spot, typically in front of a judge or some form of evaluation.

"Ms. Smith signed a sight reading along with scale test."

by om51406 June 17, 2025

Synthetic Realness

When something looks and feels real enough to pass… but you know deep down it’s manufactured. Can apply to AI influencers, staged “candid” photos, or that brand new dive bar that spent millions to look old and grimy.

My office has a 'fun zone' with bean bags and foosball. It’s all synthetic realness to distract from the 12-hour workdays.

by GuyWhoWritesDefinitions September 2, 2025