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Is it possible to prove other people exist? (1 Viewer)

But I was thinking about solipsism last night and I try not to even ask those questions. Once you really start asking them, there are either two things going on:

  1. You're at the beginning of philosophical journey that will leave you well-read and edified for life's conundrums and questions
  2. You're ####ed. Kill yourself now.  
 
Could you or I be the only "real" person in this simulation and everyone else is just a program to see how you react to certain situations?

Do we have definitive proof that there is more than 1 person in our universe?
Don't matter. One needing proof is all that matters. You get to be you among all this today. Make the most of that. It all ain't gonna change 'cept you change it. Proving is the biggest sucker move in life unless you're a scientist. We are not here to prove, but to improve.

 
But I was thinking about solipsism last night and I try not to even ask those questions. Once you really start asking them, there are either two things going on:

  1. You're at the beginning of philosophical journey that will leave you well-read and edified for life's conundrums and questions
  2. You're ####ed. Kill yourself now.  
Sounds like a piece of AI trying to keep me from learning the truth. 

 
Don't matter. One needing proof is all that matters. You get to be you among all this today. Make the most of that. It all ain't gonna change 'cept you change it. Proving is the biggest sucker move in life unless you're a scientist. We are not here to prove, but to improve.
That not why were here?  :confused:

Honestly, I'm not looking for proof to make it feel better or anything like that.  It just seems so odd that you can't prove something so simple.  It reminds me of something like trying to describe a color to a blind person.  

 
That not why were here?  :confused:

Honestly, I'm not looking for proof to make it feel better or anything like that.  It just seems so odd that you can't prove something so simple.  It reminds me of something like trying to describe a color to a blind person.  
You will meet a million people in your life. You don't know and won't know where they're really at, not one li'l bit no matter how close. Deal widdit. Deal with everything. "Proving" is your inner ape pushing the buttons when your inner computer could be pushing the buttons. Figure that out and you've done a lot more than "proving" can.

 
You will meet a million people in your life. You don't know and won't know where they're really at, not one li'l bit no matter how close. Deal widdit. Deal with everything. "Proving" is your inner ape pushing the buttons when your inner computer could be pushing the buttons. Figure that out and you've done a lot more than "proving" can.
I think you're missing my point, GB.

 
My point is that your question has nothing to do with anything but mastery. We can't master existence, which is why we try. We used to master hard ground, turbulent weather, constant pain & loss, tactile & tangible things. We "beat" them by existing and that was enough.

We can't beat, master modern life. There are no Roman moments, pulling the heart out of a foe and holding it high, taking a bite, or lugging a deer home or bringing a crop to harvest that means the winter for your family. Now that we've well mastered the survival thing, that society is organized and prevalent, there's just a scramble of transitory madness, a tide we can ride or be swamped by or drown under. So we invent victories, abstractions to pass the time and pump us up.

You, as a human being in the modern day, are the culmination of 4.5 billion years earthly progress, God's divine plan or both. Your insides, your personality is not figured out at all. No one outside you has figured you out, you haven't figured you out. Now there's a mystery worth knowing. If the tide is coming in, should you figure out the global tidal scheme, the density of water, or should you figure out how to swim? Jussayin'

 
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My point is that your question has nothing to do with anything but mastery. We can't master existence, which is why we try. We used to master hard ground, turbulent weather, constant pain & loss, tactile & tangible things. We "beat" them by existing and that was enough.

We can't beat, master modern life. There are no Roman moments, pulling the heart out of a foe and holding it high, taking a bite, or lugging a deer home or bringing a crop to harvest that means the winter for your family. Now that we've well mastered the survival thing, that society is organized and prevalent, there's just a scramble of transitory madness, a tide we can ride or be swamped by or drown under. So we invent victories, abstractions to pass the time and pump us up.

You, as a human being in the modern day, are the culmination of 4.5 billion years earthly progress, God's divine plan or both. Your insides, your personality is not figured out at all. No one outside you has figured you out, you haven't figured you out. If the tide is coming in, should you figure out the global tidal scheme, the density of water, or should you figure out how to swim. Jussayin'
Unless of course I'm just a computer simulation and all of that stuff you said actually never happened.

 
Unless of course I'm just a computer simulation and all of that stuff you said actually never happened.
Well, the consistencies of the way of enough things beyond my power occur to satisfy me that they are existing outside my input, so i made my peace with that by that by the end of, say, my 143rd acid trip. But have fun.

ETA: And you CAN figure yourself out. That's the real victory and almost nobody knows that.

 
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Well, the consistencies of the way of enough things beyond my power occur to satisfy me that they are existing outside my input, so i made my peace with that by that by the end of, say, my 143rd acid trip. But have fun.

ETA: And you CAN figure yourself out. That's the real victory and almost nobody knows that.
But you're not real.

 
Could you or I be the only "real" person in this simulation and everyone else is just a program to see how you react to certain situations?

Do we have definitive proof that there is more than 1 person in our universe?
Do we even have proof our universe exists? Who cares? This is it for us. Even if we aren't real we can still do stuff. I mean nothing really matters anyway.

 
My point is that your question has nothing to do with anything but mastery. We can't master existence, which is why we try. We used to master hard ground, turbulent weather, constant pain & loss, tactile & tangible things. We "beat" them by existing and that was enough.

We can't beat, master modern life. There are no Roman moments, pulling the heart out of a foe and holding it high, taking a bite, or lugging a deer home or bringing a crop to harvest that means the winter for your family. Now that we've well mastered the survival thing, that society is organized and prevalent, there's just a scramble of transitory madness, a tide we can ride or be swamped by or drown under. So we invent victories, abstractions to pass the time and pump us up.

You, as a human being in the modern day, are the culmination of 4.5 billion years earthly progress, God's divine plan or both. Your insides, your personality is not figured out at all. No one outside you has figured you out, you haven't figured you out. Now there's a mystery worth knowing. If the tide is coming in, should you figure out the global tidal scheme, the density of water, or should you figure out how to swim? Jussayin'
The tidal patterns and density of water.  Find something less dense and you won't have to swim.  Know the tides and know where you are going.

 
Could you or I be the only "real" person in this simulation and everyone else is just a program to see how you react to certain situations?

Do we have definitive proof that there is more than 1 person in our universe?
Holy COW!!!!!!!!!

I thought I was the only one on this planet that thought about this one.

By the way, I'm getting pushed to the limit with the stupid going on here on planet Earth.

 
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My proof is that no one has ever walked in me rubbing one out.  I feel like if the universe was really judging my reaction to certain situations, that would have happened a long time ago, as that is some low hanging fruit for whatever scientist is looking for some comic relief in studying my otherwise boring life.

Oh, #######, I just jinxed myself - didn't I?

 
My proof is that no one has ever walked in me rubbing one out.  I feel like if the universe was really judging my reaction to certain situations, that would have happened a long time ago, as that is some low hanging fruit for whatever scientist is looking for some comic relief in studying my otherwise boring life.

Oh, #######, I just jinxed myself - didn't I?
Next time you go flogging, your boss, priest and mother are gonna walk in at the same time.

 
It all depends on what assumptions you're willing to accept. What makes a person "real"?

You can't even prove that you're a real person, much less the rest of us. But even if you are real, it could be the rest of us cease to exist once we're out of your sphere of awareness, staying that way until you become aware of us again. And each time we manifest, we come complete with memories to account for the time we didn't exist. We wouldn't even know we were ever not there. 

 
So just to sum up some of the thoughts:

"You shouldn't think too much, just have fun."

I feel like I'm fighting the Red Foreman from coming out of me like Bruce Banner fights the Hulk.

 
What if you're not even the point of the simulation?  What if you're just there to test something else?

You can't even prove you exist, don't worry too much about other people.

 
What if you're not even the point of the simulation?  What if you're just there to test something else?

You can't even prove you exist, don't worry too much about other people.
Of course I'm real.  Maybe not my form, but this mind is mine.  

 
Could you or I be the only "real" person in this simulation and everyone else is just a program to see how you react to certain situations?

Do we have definitive proof that there is more than 1 person in our universe?
I believe the answer is no.  I can only be sure of my own existence and of my ability to control my decisions. 

See Nick Bostom's paper from ~2000 which examined whether we are in an advanced race's simulation.

 
Science isn't about proof, either.
I almost posted the same thing.  Glad I read further into the thread. 

The only people who really try to prove stuff are the mathematicians.  The problem with that is they are proving things based off stuff we made up.  So...

 
Do we have definitive proof that there is more than 1 person in our universe?
If you want to believe we do, yes. If you don't want to believe we do, no. People will define "proof" and "evidence" however they want. What is not proof to you is solid, tangible evidence to another, and vice-versa. It would be pointless trying to debate with someone carrying the opposite viewpoint.

 

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