How do you know you’re not dreaming? - Daniel Gregory

Prevodilac: Milenka Okuka Lektor: Ivana Korom

You’re a butterfly, fluttering around pursuing a butterfly’s whims.

Leptir ste koji leprša naokolo prateći svoje leptirske hirove.

Then you wake up.

Onda se probudite.

But how do you know you’re not dreaming now?

Međutim, kako znate da trenutno ne sanjate?

The answer might seem obvious,

Odgovor se može učiniti očiglednim,

but it’s actually very difficult to explain how, definitively,

ali je zapravo veoma teško objasniti kako, definitivno,

you know you’re awake.

da znate da ste budni.

So difficult, in fact, that it has puzzled philosophers since ancient times.

Toliko teško, zapravo, da je zbunjivalo filozofe još od drevnih vremena.

In the butterfly scenario,

U scenariju sa leptirom,

the ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi surfaced a mystifying possibility:

drevni kineski filozof Čuang Ce je osvetlio zbunjujuću mogućnost:

if we can dream of being an entirely different creature,

ako možemo da sanjamo da smo skroz drugačije biće,

who's to say we're not actually

ko kaže da zapravo nismo

a different creature dreaming of being human?

drugačije biće koje sanja da je čovek?

Bizarre things happen in dreams:

Bizarne stvari se dešavaju u snovima:

you fly, or conjure an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet out of thin air,

letite, ni iz čega stvarate švedski sto sa onoliko đakonija koliko vam duša ište,

or get chased by witches through the halls of your elementary school,

ili vas jure veštice kroz hodnik vaše osnovne škole,

which suddenly looks a lot like Paris.

koja iznenada poprilično liči na Pariz.

But the strange things that happen in dreams don’t seem strange at the time.

Međutim, čudne stvari koje se dešavaju u snovima ne čine se čudnim dok sanjate.

So how do you know you’re not in a dream right now

Pa, kako znate da trenutno niste u snu

that will seem very strange after you wake up?

koji će se činiti krajnje čudnim nakon što se probudite?

Well, it is possible to notice

Pa, moguće je zapaziti

the strangeness of a dream while you’re dreaming.

neobičnost sna dok sanjate.

Lucid dreamers know they’re dreaming.

Lucidni sanjari znaju da sanjaju.

By definition, if you were having a lucid dream, you would know it.

Prema definiciji, da sanjate lucidan san, znali biste.

But all that proves is that you’re not having a lucid dream—

Međutim, to samo dokazuje da ne sanjate lucidan san -

it doesn’t prove you’re awake.

ne dokazuje da ste budni.

There has to be a surefire test—

Mora da postoji pouzdan test -

something that never— or only— happens when you’re awake,

nešto što se nikad - ili samo - dešava kada ste budni,

something that never— or only— happens in a dream.

nešto što se nikad - ili samo - dešava u snu.

Wake up. No, that isn’t it—

Probudite se. Ne, to nije to -

you can wake up in a dream.

možete da se probudite u snu.

Pinch yourself. If it hurts, aren’t you really awake?

Uštinite se. Ako boli, niste li uistinu budni?

Try to read or write something.

Probajte da pročitate ili napišete nešto.

Run around the room.

Trčite po sobi.

Does your pace seem normal or suspiciously slow?

Da li vaš korak izgleda normalno ili je sumnjivo spor?

Suspiciously fast?

Sumnjivo brz?

Can’t tell? Try to remember the last time you ran.

Niste sigurni? Prisetite se poslednjeg puta kad ste trčali.

Actually, that brings us to an even better test

Zapravo, to nas dovodi do još boljeg testa

from the 17th century French philosopher René Descartes.

francuskog filozofa iz XVII veka Renea Dekarta.

He pointed out that in our memories, dreams are disconnected—

Ukazao je da su u našem sećanju snovi nepovezani -

the events of a dream don’t fit in to the chain of events

događaji u snovima se ne podudaraju sa nizom događaja

in our waking lives.

iz naših budnih života.

This seems rock solid, doesn't it?

Ovo se čini jasnim kao dan, zar ne?

You couldn’t possibly have swum with dolphins in a nameless pink sea

Nema šanse da ste plivali sa delfinima u bezimenom rozom moru

between Christmas and New Year’s Eve

između Božića i Nove godine

because you didn’t leave Kansas and you have the receipts to prove it.

jer niste napustili Kanzas, a imate i račune da to dokažete.

Well, one of Descartes’ contemporaries,

Pa, jedan od Dekartovih savremenika,

the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, had something to say about that:

engleski filozof Tomas Hobs je imao ponešto da kaže o ovome:

what if Descartes was performing his test in a dream?

šta ako je Dekart izvodio svoj test u snu?

What if we ask an expert?

Šta ako upitamo stručnjaka?

A neuroscientist can measure the activity in different parts of your brain

Neuronaučnik može da meri aktivnost u različitim delovima vašeg mozga

and tell you whether you’re awake or sleeping.

i da vam kaže da li ste budni ili spavate.

But that just brings us back to the idea that any test you might use

To nas pak vraća na zamisao da koji god test da koristite

to prove you’re awake could take place in a dream.

da biste dokazali da ste budni mogao bi da se dešava u snu.

So far, no one has found a convincing response to this.

Do sad, niko nije pronašao uverljiv odgovor na ovo.

But let’s be real: there’s a whole lot more detail in our waking experience

Uozbiljimo se ipak: ima mnogo više detalja u našim budnim iskustvima

than in dreams.

nego u snovima.

We go to sleep and wake up again day after day for many years,

Odlazimo na spavanje i ponovo se budimo dan za danom dugi niz godina,

and each new day is full of countless people, places, things, experiences.

a svaki novi dan je ispunjen sa bezbroj ljudi, lica, stvari, iskustava.

Even our memories, which capture just a fraction of this experience,

Čak i naša sećanja, koja beleže svega delić ovog iskustva,

contain an almost incomprehensibly vast amount of detail:

sadrže gotovo nepojmljivo ogromnu količinu detalja:

we can recall a line from a favorite book decades later,

možemo da se setimo rečenice iz omiljene knjige decenijama kasnije,

remember the musty smell of its pages

sećamo se plesnivog mirisa njenih stranica

and the taste of the lemonade we drank while reading it,

kao i ukusa limunade koju smo pili dok smo čitali knjigu,

remember a dream we had about it and tell someone all this.

sećamo se sna koji smo sanjali o njoj i kako smo sve to nekom ispričali.

Isn't it ridiculous to suggest a dream could ever simulate this richness?

Zar nije smešno pretpostaviti da san uopšte može da simulira ovo izobilje?

Well, as the Persian philosopher al-Ghazali pointed out,

Pa, kao što je persijski filozof El Gazali istakao,

in the same way we think we are now awake having woken from dreams,

isto kao što sad mislimo da smo budni probudivši se iz snova,

it is possible that we might wake from our current state

moguće je da ćemo se probuditi iz našeg trenutnog stanja

into another state of even greater wakefulness.

u drugo stanje još veće budnosti.

Which would mean we’re really in a kind of dream-state

A to bi značilo da smo zaista u nekakvom stanju snoviđenja

when we think we’re awake.

kada mislimo da smo budni.

What philosophers really want to know is what justifies our belief

Filozofi zaista žele da znaju šta opravdava naše uverenje

that we’re awake.

da smo budni.

We all want to believe things because we have reasons for them,

Svi želimo da verujemo u nešto jer postoji razlog za to,

not just because they seem right.

ne samo zato što se čini ispravnim.

Sometimes, the biggest challenge is to show why we should believe something

Ponekad je najveći izazov pokazati zašto bi trebalo da verujemo u nešto

that seems completely obvious to us all.

što se čini potpuno očiglednim svima nama.