The short answer is no and this is yet another example as to why life is illusory. Just like ancient philosophers from the Buddha to Socrates told us. Their message to us wasn’t that life is unintelligible, but that we should embrace inquiry more than answers.

Volume is a strange concept. When you increase the size of something, it’s volume increases exponentially. At times, this tricks us even though we kind of get it. We observe it when we see two men about to fight but one of them is shorter. Instinctively we know his stature is a big disadvantage. That’s our instincts correctly at work.

Now, the key insight here is that our perception tends to underestimate the disadvantage. To illustrate, let’s take two balloons where one is twice as big as the other. When we look at them, it can feel like two of the half sized ones is about equal to the big one. However, when you test this perception the larger one is exponentially larger, not just 2 times but more like 8 times bigger! Really!! It takes 8 times the air in the smaller one to fill it.

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Michael Alan Prestwood
Author & Natural Philosopher

Prestwood writes on science-first philosophy, with particular attention to the convergence of disciplines. Drawing on his TST Framework, his work emphasizes rational inquiry grounded in empirical observation while engaging questions at the edges of established knowledge. With TouchstoneTruth positioned as a living touchstone, this work aims to contribute reliable, evolving analysis in an emerging AI era where the credibility of information is increasingly contested.