160-Character Philosophies: The Senses, The Cipher, and The Fruit of Knowledge

wil michael (@wilplatypus)

Welcome back to our ongoing exploration of condensed wisdom. Today, we're unpacking wil michael's (@wilplatypus) Twitter bio:

"21e8 🍊 All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions -lv"

This bio is a bit different from what we've seen before. It's part code, part emoji, part quote. Let's break it down.

First, "21e8". To most, this might look like random characters. But to those in the know, it's a nod to Bitcoin. It's a theory about a potential vulnerability in Bitcoin's mining process. Arcane stuff, but it signals that wil michael is into crypto, or at least the culture around it.

Then, the orange. 🍊 In the crypto world, this often represents Bitcoin. "Orange pill" is slang for converting someone to believe in Bitcoin. So we're doubling down on the crypto theme here.

But then we take a sharp turn.

"All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions -lv"

This is a quote from Leonardo da Vinci. We've gone from cutting-edge tech to Renaissance wisdom in the space of a few characters.

Let's sit with this quote for a moment. "All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions." What's Leonardo saying here?

On the surface, it's about epistemology - how we know what we know. Leonardo's saying that everything we know comes from what we perceive. Our senses are the gateway to knowledge.

This isn't a new idea. The empiricists in philosophy have been banging this drum for centuries. But coming from Leonardo - a man who literally changed how we see the world - it carries extra weight.

Think about Leonardo's famous notebooks. Packed with observations. Sketches of birds in flight, dissected corpses, swirling water. He was constantly looking, touching, listening. Perceiving.

But here's where it gets interesting: perception isn't just passive. It's active. It's selective. We choose what to focus on, what to ignore.

In a way, we create our knowledge by choosing what to perceive.

This ties back to the crypto bit in an unexpected way. In the world of cryptocurrency, perception is reality. The value of Bitcoin isn't based on physical assets. It's based entirely on what people perceive its value to be.

So we've got this fascinating juxtaposition. Cutting-edge financial technology meets Renaissance philosophy. Both united by this idea of perception shaping reality.

But let's push this further. If all our knowledge comes from perception, what happens when our perceptions are wrong? What about optical illusions? What about biases? What about straight-up hallucinations?

This is where Leonardo's statement becomes a challenge. It's not just saying "trust your senses." It's saying "question your senses." It's an invitation to look closer, to perceive more carefully.

In our world of fake news and deep fakes, of filter bubbles and echo chambers, this message is more relevant than ever. Our perceptions are constantly being manipulated. So we need to be more conscious than ever of how we're perceiving the world.

But there's hope in this message too. If our knowledge comes from our perceptions, that means we have the power to expand our knowledge by expanding our perceptions. By looking at things from new angles. By listening to different voices. By touching, tasting, smelling new things.

In a way, this bio is a call to adventure. It's saying "Your world is created by what you perceive. So perceive more. Perceive differently. Perceive carefully."

It's a reminder that knowledge isn't something that just happens to us. It's something we actively create through our engagement with the world.

So what does this mean for us?

Maybe it's a call to be more present. To really look at the world around us. To listen more carefully. To touch more thoughtfully.

Maybe it's an invitation to seek out new experiences, new perspectives. To deliberately challenge our existing perceptions.

Or maybe it's a reminder to be humble about our knowledge. To remember that it's all based on our limited perceptions, and there's always more to perceive, more to know.

As we continue our journey through these 160 Character Philosophies, wil michael's bio stands out as a bridge between ancient wisdom and modern technology. It reminds us that in the midst of our digital age, we're still fundamentally creatures of perception.

Stay tuned for our next exploration. There's a whole world of wisdom out there, 160 characters at a time. And like Leonardo, we'll keep observing, keep perceiving, keep learning.