The Greek philosopher Plato once described a cave.
Its inhabitants have lived there since birth.
They see only the wall before them.
They know nothing else.

Shadows flicker and dance across the wall,
cast by a fire behind them.
The prisoners cannot turn to look.
To them, the wall is the entire world.

One day, a prisoner escapes.
Slowly, his eyes begin to adjust.
For the first time, the real world unfolds before him
— beautiful, overwhelming, true.

Filled with wonder, he returns to tell the others.
No one believes him.
To them, the shadows are all that exists.
They think he has gone mad.

Plato’s cave is a well-known philosophical allegory.
What if it’s more than just a story?