This is something that
mankind has speculated about since the dawn
of time. Well, maybe not that long, but somewhere around the year 1000
BC, give or take a few hundred years, some people started thinking
about the
nature of the
world. Some early
theories stated
that everything consisted of water, that everything consisted of the
strange substance phlogiston, the the whole being of existance
was in a
process of
constant change or that the whole being of
existance was static and never changed (it is only our
perception
that changes).
Fast forward to Plato. His ideas were pretty revolutionary; he
postulated that not only did the true nature of the
universe never change, it was indeed separated from the reality
that we know. There existed an immaterial universe of perfected
ideas, where every object in our imperfect material universe had
an true, beautiful and perfect counterpart. However, we can not
perceive those abstract ideas, only the 'shadows' of them.
Immanuel Kant was on to something similar; in his model we can
not experience the world directly since all perception is filtered
through our senses (Kant counts sight, smell, touch,
but also cause and effect and temporal
perception as some of those fileters).
Clearly, the idea that the true nature of the universe is in some
way hidden from us is not a new one; modern variations are for example
the notion that the government is hiding the truth about who
runs the world from you (common among conspiracy buffs and
X-files enthusiasts), or New Age ideas that the world is really a
more wonderful place than you can ever imagine. Also, I think the
buddhists believe that we only see the world through a
veil, but I'm not sure if that's the correct
interpretation. Anyway, it seems that discovering the
true nature is for many people the ultimate goal; many have made it
their mission in life (although I suspect most of them also belive
that this is a futile goal but that the journey is its own
reward). Depending on your point of view, succeeding in this
quest could be wonderful or terrible. For example, reaching
nirvana and becoming One with the World is a Good Thing, but
discovering that you are indeed living in the world of the Cthulhu
mythos is definitely a Bad Thing.