I'll take it a step further and contend that it doesn't operate on perception of reality but that it operates on a mythological reality.

Without going in to great detail, because it is obvious w/o having to consider too deeply, human perception is incapable of registering more than an infinitesimal amount of the available information.

We can only perceive ~0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum. An orca can hear from 0.5Hz to 120kHz. Most of what humans listen to is between 1–5kHz (although in theory we can hear from ~20Hz-20kHz). Our other 3 senses are limited by the need for physical contact.

Now, admittedly, we have created tools that extend our senses. However, it must be acknowledged that what those tools give us is numbers, not perceptions. They allow us to (occasionally) think about the rest of the universe that lies beyond our perception. They don't allow us to directly perceive.

Of what little we can perceive, we mostly ignore:

To illustrate this point further:

Perceptual bias is real & a fundamental part of how we process information in our world.

We can't directly perceive more than an infinitesimal amount of the available information. Of what little we can perceive, our brains largely ignore in order to protect us from information overload. Needless to say, this leaves us with huge gaps in our information about the world.

Humans are very uncomfortable with the unknown. Unknown things can be scary and threatening (doesn't this seem like the basis for most of what passes for news these days?). Emotionally, knowing things is what supports our sense of safety.

So here's the kicker, what do we do in the face of so much being unknown? We make things up!

That's right! Our knowledge is full of gaps, which makes us uncomfortable, therefore, we fill in the gaps with information we pull out of our memories. Those memories are inherently selective. They tend to favor what has emotional charge (that's a different deep discussion). In other words, we fill in the (it must be acknowledged, HUGE) gaps in what we have direct knowledge of with information that is inherently emotionally biased and derived from past experiences (that were similarly “analyzed" from a perspective of highly limited information — & probably from the perspective of a child).

Simply put, in any given moment (especially when the events carry emotional charge) we make up (or dredge up) stories from our brains to explain our experience of the world. That qualifies as mythology. We live in the mythological stories which we tell ourselves is the way the world really is.

I like to believe that something is out there that can qualify as “objective reality.” However, none of us should have expectations of ever knowing what it is.

Note: I am trained as a physicist. I love science. However, it must be acknowledged that science is limited by it's ability to take objective measurements of things and the decision to make a specific measurement. Making the assumption that we are able to measure all quantities that exist in “reality” cannot be determined to be a good assumption. Even when considering what we can measure, we can only measure quantities, not qualities. Quality requires interpretation. Interpretation takes us back to the world of mythology.

2nd note:

Once our emotions get activated, our ability to rationally process information becomes reduced. Is it any wonder then that modern media is designed to evoke an emotional response? When media is successful at doing so, they succeed in reducing our ability to intelligently analyze the message that is then delivered. Activation of emotions is fundamental in the process of “washing” the brain in order to insert the messengers desired message.

3rd (added) note:

I have seen research which indicates that brains are not so much selective as to what is perceived & what is ignored as brains are predictive of what is expected to be perceived. That means that we have expectations about what we will encounter in a given environment. If we encounter “data” that does not conform to what we predict, we are much more likely to ignore it.

It’s much like what Harry Nilsson said in his story, The Point: “You see what you want to see & you hear what you want to hear.”