Introduction

From the early stages of evolution, humans, led by their curiosity, an internal common element of every life form, strived to discover, understand, explain, and experience their surroundings and inner world.

Their main path of understanding was observation, input from what seems to be external, coming from somewhere that does not feel to belong to one himself, that is generally accepted as the observable truth.

The discrepancies

Even though it is known and, to a small degree, scientifically proven that truth (as far as one can identify or assume what the truth is) and perception can diverge significantly, no insight is yet available into the degree of the discrepancy between them.

It is a common belief that perceptions formed by different observers are based on the same "truth" they observe. The variations are based on missing or incomplete parts of information streams reaching the observer and his evaluation of the incoming information.

When you see and touch a stone, you usually do not challenge what it is; you may challenge the feeling of coldness because one may perceive it to be colder than someone else, but there is a common consensus that it is a stone.

But truth and perception are two independent and unrelated units. They do not share anything in common. One is what you can consider a fact of reality (and more), and the other is a theoretical internal conceptual construct. You can call perception a tool, a powerful instrument used to help you navigate the complex decision chains and paths of life toward your goals.

Observation always leads to a perception of what you observe

If you assume that humans always have goals they actively pursue, the tool of perception always intervenes to guide them to their goals. No matter what someone experiences,  externally or internally, all is adjusted, filtered, and "manipulated" to serve as decision guidance. This personalized, goal-oriented perception constantly forms the basis of what is regarded as 'truth.' However, it's crucial to recognize that this understanding is at least bounded by the subjectivity of our perception and the limitations inherent to our mental processing.

No stream of information represents the truth or a portion of it.

To delve deeper into the nature of 'truth' itself, we must look beyond perception, acknowledging perception's intentional nature and the human limitations that further shape it.

The challenges

But how can one search, explain, and understand the universe when he can not see it? When he only considers the manipulated or entirely constructed picture, his perception forms for him to see and experience.

Every observation, insight, and derived result is flawed or wrong. This is one of the biggest challenges in understanding and explaining even the most simple workings of the system you live in. It is also why so many inconsistencies and discrepancies occur in theories that try to explain the microcosmos and the macrocosmos, for example. In a finely balanced, efficient, and seemingly perfect system, you can expect a theory to be able to explain all. However, humans have not yet found a model that explains everything.

The human perspective

Redefining our understanding of truth involves viewing it not as a fixed, objective fact but as an interconnected construct. This is not because the absolute truth is flexible and subjective but because human limitations, such as information access, processing capacity, etc., do not allow us to build a snapshot of the absolute truth at any given point.

Refining our understanding of truth from our accessible human perspective is the first step in evolving and building a theoretical model that includes as many elements as truth consists of, even if it is far from perfect or complete.

Even though it is generally accepted, understood, and visible throughout history that the truth about something is continuously forming, this insight has not yet led to a clear consciousness and acceptance of this same fact of common sense.

Such a clear awareness, like a soft "question mark" that lets one check throughout time the state of the truth of a subject again and again, or the change of the term, in something else not carrying the characteristic of absolute the word Truth comes with, would lead to an easier and faster evolvement of our understanding of reality, nature, and the interconnected way the universe's system works.

By beginning to challenge any of your Truths, you start a journey of possible discovery of a more expanded truth, the results you can use to shape, optimize, and speed up how you look at the universe, the far and the very close realities surrounding you.