Here's a Discourse video and written editorial review of Reality Unbound. I really like the reviewers. They have such a friendly demeanor and conversational approach. I do think they struggled quite a bit, to explain the book during the review and explaining the concepts, which is understandable since this is not their area of expertise. For example, when she said that I wrote, "not having language doesn't mean you are not intelligent" - I said the opposite, that language is critical to intelligence. Specifically, "The differences in how people think does not mean that people whose thoughts are expressed internally through sound, visual sign language, or the sensation of touch does not make any member of these groups less intelligent..." So I think she conflated what I said about speech, with language, which are two different things, but related. They focused on some of passing statements but not the core or central thesis of the book. Anyway, here is the review:
"Reality Unbound" is one of those books that makes big ideas feel surprisingly easy to understand. Instead of drowning the reader in heavy jargon, E. Hughes breaks down complex topics like consciousness, perception, evolution, and artificial intelligence into simple, relatable explanations. The book reads like a friendly guide walking you through some of the biggest questions humans have ever asked: What is the mind? Is reality even real? Could a machine ever think the way we do? Hughes uses down-to-earth examples, everyday language, and real-world connections that make these deep concepts feel accessible and even exciting.
What makes the book especially enjoyable is how smoothly it blends science, philosophy, and technology without ever feeling overwhelming. Hughes invites readers to think, question, and imagine possibilities about the universe, the brain, and the future of AI. Even if you've never studied these subjects before, the book feels welcoming and thought-provoking rather than intimidating. If you're curious about how the mind works, how reality might not be what it seems, or where AI could be heading, "Reality Unbound" is a great place to start.
- Discourse
As reality becomes more artificial, the less it resembles objective “physical” reality. It becomes abstract; the environment and social conditions becoming intangible and virtual. Socially, humankind’s immersion into the unreal, an imitation (simulation) of reality is not a conscious or willful act of defiance against reality, but a willful act of defiance against nature through technological advancement.
The arrow of time plays an important role in reality’s progression to artificial reality. Artificial realities do not retrogress to earlier states; it becomes more artificial as time moves forward, with reality becoming less tangible and increasingly more virtual (or digital) over time.
- From The Absence of Reality: Aphorisms and Observations of the Nature of Reality and Existence by E. Hughes
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-absence-of-reality-e-hughes/1148716937?ean=9781961823242
How were illustrations created for my book? The video shows how. First, my teen YA light novel /comic Kissing Henry is so cute. It was such a fun project. I love my artwork, more on the illustrations in a moment... I've been published for over 20 years and have over 20 books, including 6 children's books. The rest are philosophy/science , poetry, or the much older romance novels but this one is adorable to me. It speaks to teens and addresses a number of issues with a clear lesson to be learned at the end. I love that the artwork is so collaborative. I've worked with the same artists for all of my children's books. One artist for the characters, and one for backgrounds, and then I complete the artwork and final design, bringing the background, characters and the final layout together to complete the final look for the story. Each person strictly works on their own area. My daughter AJ, who is also an author and blossoming illustrator with her own line of children's books worked on the editing. If I ask her to take something and remove the background so I can use something in a different scene, or fix something without bothering my illustrator she can do it. I'm an artist but I'm better at painting landscapes and still life art or things, rather than creating people. 🥰 ❤❤❤
#yanovel #BOOKS #newbooks #findinghappiness #comicstok #booklover #yanovel #yanovels #books #comics
Kissing Henry 💋 by E. Hughes on sale now. This is the Kissing Henry teen novel video book trailer. It's such a cute story about a girl who has a crush on a boy who isn't into her. So she made a vow to Kiss Henry by the end of the school year. Except, things doesn't always go according to plan. The Kissing Henry song was made specifically for this book https://www.amazon.com/Kissing-Henry-90s-Girl-Hughes/dp/1961823292
#books #videotrailer
The ebook for The Absence of Reality is doing well. It ranked #6 , #9, and #9 in all 3 categories on Amazon's bestsellers list within 3 days of its release. The print edition is still glitched on Amazon, with a shipping date all the way in December. So I'm promoting Barnes and Noble as the best place to buy the print edition. I would contact Amazon about the issue but they always seem to make things worse. I'll let it sort itself, as it will do so eventually.
#books #newreleases
I have my third editorial review of The Absence of Reality and I have come to one conclusion; the subject matter may be too academic or challenging. I wrote it as a message to everyday people; a caution, of sorts. The review was positive but the reviewer admitted that it was an "...intellectual challenge," and "...the text is easy to read despite its highly complex nature " So even if you write a complex idea using a simpler framework, it doesn't change the complexity of the work or make it any more accessible to the reader.
#books
E. Writer
Except, if the medium was a letter, then that becomes both the message and the messenger. It shows how information can present itself in various forms, which also shapes how we perceive and even understand the message. This takes it back to The Absence of Reality, how we never have a true sense of reality, and cannot know it because we are constantly shaping reality through human or artificial constructs. Biology also limits what we can see and know about reality. His book was before social media. In Absence, I went back to the 1980s, starting with Baudrillard, then the 90s to Frank Tipler, then to 2003 to Bostrom, then back to S. James Gates.
One quote from the book, that's longer, has somewhat of a similar message:
"We live in a time when reality is no longer shaped by objective
facts, but rapidly shifting streams of narratives and
information circulated to human consciousness through
various modes of media. It is critical to understand that these
constructs are merely illusions.
We exist in a manufactured reality of manmade crises."
Roy Scarbrough
And what your post shows is that there is a fragility to aphorism. They're delicate, and break when pushed.
In Through the Vanishing Point, McLuhan discusses how painters' use of lineal perspective to create an illusion of space. He argues the device created an uncomfortable sense that reality is a thing that's manufactured.
I'll push back on the "uncomfortable" the texts of the time show that the reaction was a delightful sense of wonder.
E. Writer That's an excellent example of how a device can create a sense that reality is being manufactured. Baudrillard said as much in Simulacra and Simulation. And using perspectives in painting does create an illusion that a 2D space is in fact, a 4D space, showing distance and depth when that is in fact, not the case. This is an example of reality being manufactured. Had I known McLuhan, I may have explored and analyzed his views for my book.
Roy Scarbrough The physical device associated with this was the camera oscura. Literally "dark room". A small dark enclosure with a pin hole will project the exterior scene on a flat panel from which one can trace the perspectival lines to demonstrate how the illusion of space is constructed. Filipo Brunelleschi famously set one of these up in the Piazza del Duomo in florence.
E. Writer
Oh yeah, I've seem the camera obscura in Neil DeGrasse Tysons show, The Cosmos. He showed the history of it, starting back in the Middle East and China and they demonstrated how it worked. Interestingly, the eye works very similar to the camera obscure and modern photo cameras, which are modeled very similarly to how the eye perceives light.
I wrote about this in Reality Unbound. What I was trying to do in the book is draw a parallel between how technology mimics human biology to demonstrate that one does not require a biological substrate f have a form of consciousness. The camera is just one example of that. Here's what I wrote on page 40 in the book:
"In his infamous book, Leviathan, 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes argued that only material matter is real. He believed that thoughts consisted of images generated by biological chemicals in our bodies. I suppose, much the way that images are generated on a computer through the use of electrical signals and other complex functions. Computers did not exist at that time, of course, but the description used by Hobbes is very much in line with this concept. How cameras capture images and store them on film is also similar to how the eye captures images and transmits them to the brain. Humans have often created different types of technology that mimic human features. "