If I were a Fish

If I were a fish and swam in a creek would my entire universe look two dimensional? I could swim forward and backwards – one side and then the other. Would I conceive of an UP – beyond the surface of the water?

So if I were a fish and I mentioned to the other fish that I believed there was another dimension ABOVE the surface of the water, would I be regarded as insane?

What if you were walking by the creek one day and reached in and pulled me out of the water? I would then see fish that had no fins, fish with hair, fish with stretchy pink stuff instead of scales on their bodies and fish that made strange noises. A whole new race of fish would be discovered and the fish community would regard me as a famous explorer scientist responsible for a major discovery (which I named and I described from my fish perspective)

Without you pulling me out of the creek, how could I ever see what was ABOVE the surface?

So return me to the creek, you didn’t walk by and I stayed in the water.

How about if it rains one day? I see odd shaped shadows swelling and falling up above me. I do not see the rain but I feel the vibrations in the water as the rain drops surge into the water creating odd shapes and new sensations in the water. From these sensory perceptions I make up stories and create language and terminology to describe the “facts” that I have discovered about my world – this tiny little creek. From my observations, I can create a way to measure what I observe, question my current beliefs and establish a foundation of science based on sensory perceptions of illusions that are measured by benchmarks based on current beliefs.

Bottom line here – everything I see will be about me being a fish.

So – out of the creek, grow a few limbs, lose the scales and start breathing through a central smaller gill.

But am I still a fish?

What am I unaware of as I swim in my tiny little creek day in day out?

What legends do I create when I “feel” vibrations and “see” shadows that I have no point of reference for?