Unknown unknowns…

No, not the Donald Rumsfeld ones.  😁  I’m talking about what goes on around us that we are cognitively unaware of.  I’m talking the real reality out there, very different than our little slice of it.  Let me take you on the journey… 

Look around you.  What do you see?  It’s called your reality (chairs, tables, windows, computer, etc.), i.e., what we think of as “real stuff.”  To you, all that exists and is real.  It’s what you “know” to exist.  It’s your (I’ll call it) “known knowns” reality.

But if you had the ability to see what goes on outside your visible light spectrum, your so-called reality, your mind would be totally blown.  It would be exactly like entering another realm of existence.

Humans are able to see only a small portion (<1%) of the Electromagnetic Spectrum, the section we call “visible light” (see image above).  Though we can’t directly see outside our little slice, we do, however, know much about it.  We know its effect on our reality. We also know its accessibility can be different for different species other than humans.  For example, “animals such as bees and snakes are able to see into the ultraviolet spectrum.  The light-sensing cells of butterflies allow them to see all kinds of light, and are considered to have the broadest visual range compared to any form of wildlife.”

Then there are all those other kinds of electromagnetic light waves, outside our visual ones, that are floating around out there in what we call “reality”.  These phenomena are also a real part of our existence too.  You got your infrared, ultraviolet, microwaves, radio waves, gamma rays, x-rays (again, see above image).

So, when it comes to the EM spectrum, in summary, we could call all these phenomena “known unknowns”; i.e., “known about” but can’t be “directly known” (experience) without instrumentation.  Known (about) unknowns.

Okay, now let’s go even “deeper” into “reality.”  Did you know that, fundamentally, everything around you is just a myriad of particles and forces, dancing around, and making up your reality?  It’s true.  Artistically speaking, you could think of reality as a massive “fishbowl of chaos” that, for some reason, remarkably comes together to form the visual spectrum of your reality.  (I still don’t understand how these particles and forces are able to come together, stay intact, and create stable images of external individual entities.  (I think it has something to do with amenable chemical bonding, but I don’t know.  That’s for another day.)  Continuing on with my train of thought…

Going even deeper into reality, how about those sub-atomic particles, such as neutrinos, “one of the most abundant particles in the universe.”  Did you know that “about 100 trillion neutrinos pass through your body every second.”  Whoa.  That’s mind blowing.  Or, we could go bigger; the other end of the spectrum.  How about that “dark matter” and “dark energy” floating around out there in the cosmos, baffling even the greatest minds humankind has ever known?

Okay, okay, you get the picture by now.  I have been talking about these accepted (so-called) “known unknowns.”

Now, what I’m trying to get to is the “unknown unknowns.”  What we don’t have any direct or indirect access to, or knowledge of.

We know about these “known knowns” and “known unknowns.”  But what about the “unknown unknowns?”  (Stay with me here.)  The as-of-yet undiscovered phenomena that exists and that may affect our reality, but that we do not have access to, or even awareness of?  There have to be some, no?  What could they possibly be?

Questions:

1. Since our visual reality represents what I call the a.) “known knowns” (things we can directly experience), and b.) the “known unknowns” (things we are aware of but cannot directly experience), do you c.) accept/believe that there are unknown unknowns?  If not, why not?

2. What percent of our reality do you think makes up the known knowns, the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns?  (three categories)

3. Has this OP given you any pause about your reality?  Does it cause you to “rethink” it?  For example, how about an afterlife?  How about the Many Worlds Theory?  How about other currently inaccessible dimensions?  Branes (slices of realms)?  If you are fair, considering all that I have pointed out about what is really out there, how can you possibly dismiss these "unknown unknowns" possibilities?  Can you?

Impress me with your thoughts.