Recovering Reality: A Conversation with Errol Morris

[GreeenBaron]

I love how you can see him pausing and choosing his words carefully instead of blathering on imprecisely.

[thebleakaffinity]

he has an amazing, almost comforting voice. you can see how he convinces people to divulge some pretty heavy secrets to him

[ebachtiar81]

I like that monkey head in a jar at 4:00.

[Rebeber]

yes!

[foa1406]

great documentarist

[CurtHowland]

Facts exist, separate from understanding or even belief. What is, is. Or, in terms Spock said so well, "Nothing unreal exists."

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The search for truth happens because there are opinions, beliefs, faith. No one can know everything about everything, or even everything about a specific subject. So our shared knowledge is not always the truth we think it is.

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It's amazed me in my life the people who have objected to the concept that facts exist whether we recognize them or not. Really amazing.

[milesbennettdyson]

@CurtHowland I agree and disagree. Nothing unreal exists, yes; but not everything that exists is real. Is a story "real"? Sure, you've read words on a page, but that's not the story--you can recount it to your friend in different words. You've pictured images in your head, but those are subjective for each individual--just look at the results of bad casting for book-to-film adaptations. There are real things, tangible items that have depth, breadth, and height; but they aren't everything.

[CurtHowland]

@milesbennettdyson Ideas are real, because they are real ideas. They can be right or wrong, if the idea professes to describe reality.

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Once an idea is rendered, it becomes non-scarce. That's how I can recount a story to friends, yet the story that I heard remains exactly what it was. Can't do that with a physical object.

[milesbennettdyson]

@CurtHowland You're using circular logic to describe the concept of "real" and "reality" here... I assume that "reality" has some measurable quantity--an objective mass, density, or some external proof of existence. Ideas cannot be measured, because they are solely the province of the perceiving individual--your idea about something can never be exactly the same as my idea. Similarly, if you lose or alter your memory about a past event, the event you perceive is never the same afterwards.

[CurtHowland]

@milesbennettdyson So are you trying to tell people that ideas are not real?

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I'm willing to accept that there is an irreducible axiom: What is is. You can call that circular logic if you want, and I'll even agree with you. I'm not going to take a hundred pages of dense logic to prove that 1=1.

[milesbennettdyson]

@CurtHowland Of course ideas aren't real! But that doesn't mean they don't exist. You can't "measure" an idea--you can't feel the weight of it, the amplitude of the neurons firing in your brain, the body temperature you have when you think an idea--ideas are completely ungovernable by the laws of physical reality, which is why such strange things as minotaurs and Rainbow Brite have been unleashed onto the earth. But also why they remain so useful and eminently copiable!

[CurtHowland]

@milesbennettdyson "Of course ideas aren't real!"

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That's an interesting idea. Of course, since you say it isn't real then you can't have had it.

[milesbennettdyson]

@CurtHowland No wonder you think you're pointing out some logical flaw in my argument--you're applying a physical concept of "real" to something that can't even be measured. Was what I said my idea, or just my limited brain's way of interpreting that idea? What if you come up with better words for that idea than I did--would that then make it 'your' idea? Like i said, there are many things that aren't "real" that nonetheless exist--the fictional "Vulcan" that you quote proves my point.

[CurtHowland]

@milesbennettdyson "Real" is not a physical concept. It is itself conceptual.

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What you have done is conflate the word "real" with the word "tangible".

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Ideas are intangible, and real.

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A new word for you, that will greatly reduce the confusion people have reading your words.

[milesbennettdyson]

@CurtHowland Uh-uh--not all reality is tangible. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to prove the existence of anything I could not see or measure. We can't "see" inside stars or planets, but what is in there is no less real. We can't measure the electromagnetism of whole galaxies, but we can infer from small-scale elecromagnetic properties how galaxies work. You keep trying to infer that I haven't got a clue as to what I'm talking about--why is that?

[123123sephiroth]

@milesbennettdyson he is talking about the quantum scale lolol that silly boy

[gardnerc]

Lovely interview with a true genius. Thank you for sharing this eloquent glimpse into what this American treasure is thinking.

[logant44]

wow he looks like hell

time to hit the gym errol

[bfthills]

@logant44 He's almost 70, stupid!

[isselman2000]

Why does he remind me of Harold Bloom?

[DLock04]

The jewest (and greatest) of documentary filmmakers. :)

[thejudgeandthejury]

Is this guy a jew?...Are you fucking kidding me right now?..

Listen, I don't mind comments like that when they are funny..but are you kidding me?..

If you aren't kidding..you are one of the greatest douchebags of our time!

[STUDIO79HD]

Of our time? Common, it uesd to be you had to do something really stupid like go to war on false pretenses to be compared to other great douchebags like Napoleon, Ariel Sharon, the family that owned Enron,Jim Rome and Terrel Owens. But now a guy says a youtube onliner and qualifies? Im not angry, just dissapointed :)

[ldl21]

One of the greatest men of our time.

[mario4prez]

my guess is; yes! he is a genius, though and should be respected!

[MattieCooper]

Great man!

[jcornelius84]

Thank you so much for posting this, I am a student doc filmmaker, and I love Morris' work. This is a great study for me. Thanks again!

[Blammo777]

He is just so original! I love the way he can see things from completely different angles to the vast majority of people. Whenever he talks you just can't help listening to him. Makes me wonder though if some people just don't get him...Keep up the good work Errol!

[thirdpointmedia]

this video is great. it sort of renews my faith in internet video. pretty cool how its just a quick glimpse into errol morris' mind.

[ppoppynogood]

"It may sound horribly grandiloquent..."

[super3man1]

Great Post!!